Housing compact may be out of the

Long Island communities remain cautiously optimistic about state budget

By DANIEL OFFNER doffner@liherald.com

It appears that Gov. Kathy Hochul’s plans for the New York Housing Compact have been removed from the tentative state budget, over backlash from state lawmakers on the housing policy which would have mandated downstate municipalities increase housing by 3 percent every three years.

Presented in January, Gov. Hochul’s statewide program looked to address the housing crisis by developing 800,000 new apartment units by 2027. The plan would also require municipalities — such as Lynbrook, Malverne, and West Hempstead — with Metropolitan Transportation Authority rail stations to rezone to allow for higher-density residential development.

If approved, the plan would allow the state to override municipal zoning ordinances, height requirements, and environmental reviews using a fast-track approval process to allow for high-density housing within a half-mile radius of the Long Island Rail Road station.

For Lynbrook, Malverne, and West Hempstead, this would have meant 50 housing units to be built per acre within the target area — equating to 504 new units every three years.

Rockville Center Mayor Francis Murray, who serves as president of the New York Council of Mayors, called Hochul’s plan wrong.

“It’s outrageous,” Murray said. “This is about our island, our environment, our traffic, and our communities … and every elected official from Long Island was up in arms about it.”

Murray said that as president of the New York Council of Mayors, he attended several meetings as well as some protests at the state capital where they rallied opposition against the proposed housing mandate.

Assemblyman Brian Curran, in a statement, called the proposal a “poorly thoughtout plan,” which would have had a “horrendous” effect on municipalities in the district.

“I was joined in opposition to the New York Housing Compact by Rockville Centre Mayor Francis Murray, Lynbrook Mayor Alan Beach, East Rockaway Mayor Gordon Fox, Freeport Mayor Robert Kennedy, and Malverne Mayor Tim Sullivan,” Curran said. “All the mayors, especially Mayor Murray, worked extremely hard in a grassroots effort to educate their residents and deserve a lot of credit in defeating this disastrous proposal.”

Curran said that the plans to build 2,500 new residential units within a half-mile radius of every train station within each municipality in his district would have over-burdened infrastructure, overdensities schools, removed zoning codes, and essentially changed the character of suburban communities in the district including Rockville Centre, Lynbrook, East Rockaway, and Malverne.

Unlike other parts of the state, Nassau County relies on groundwater to supply residents with clean drinking water. But with sewage and septic systems at or near capacity, many are worried

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would come as a big sigh of relief for communities like Lynbrook and Malverne, which have been vehemently opposed to such an unfinished mandate that would alter zoning and impact communities in Nassau and Suffolk county’s way of life.

Murray, however, said he can’t be assured that the plan has been removed from the tentative state budget until it is agreed to and signed by Hochul.

“They’re saying that tentatively the deal has been struck,” Murray told the Herald. “If it’s true, I really want to congratulate the New York State Senate and Assembly on their tenacity to fight the governor on this.”

While it seems suburban communities like RVC and others on Long Island can rest easy for now, knowing that state lawmakers are fighting to remove the proposal from the spending plan, Curran said the fight is still not over yet.

“I believe Gov. Hochul and the politicians in Albany want to fundamentally change suburban Nassau and Suffolk County and will propose more zoning laws in the future,” Curran said. “These laws will seek to overpopulate and urbanize our villages on Long Island directly inlions of families moved from New York

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