Rockville Centre relieved by housing plan's demised

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

Presented in January, Hochul’s program looked to address the housing crisis by developing 800,000 new apartment units by 2027. The plan would require municipalities, such as Rockville Centre, 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 a greater concentration of housing within a half-mile of Long Island Rail Road stations.

For Rockville Centre, this would have meant the construction of 50 housing units per acre in the target area — equating to 504 new units every three years.

“It’s outrageous,” Mayor Francis 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, who is president of the New York Council of Mayors, said he attended several meetings as well as some protests at the state Capitol, where there were rallies in opposition to the proposed housing mandate.

Assemblyman Brian Curran called the proposal a “poorly thought-out plan,” which would have had a “horrendous” effect on local municipalities.

“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 in a statement. “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 Hochul’s plan to build 2,500 new residential units across municipalities in the 21st Assembly District would have over-burdened infrastructure, left schools overcrowded and essentially changed the character of those suburban communities.

Unlike other areas 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 officials are worried that additional stress could cause irreparable harm to the area’s ecosystem.

Rockville Centre school district officials have also stated that classrooms are already crowded. “Despite the fact that our student population numbers have remained relatively stable over the last 30 years,” Superintendent Matthew Gaven said at a Board of Education meeting earlier this year, “we have struggled with space at three of our elementary schools, and our pre-K program is currently housed at the Oceanside (Jewish Community Center).”

Meanwhile, many taxpayers are concerned that local roadways and trains are already overcrowded, while police and emergency services are responding to more calls than ever.

“I am relieved it is out of the budget now because the way it was imposed would have been extremely detrimental to us as a village,” Deputy Mayor Kathy Baxley said. “We don’t have the room to add over 300 units . . . our infrastructure would not have been able to sustain such fast growth. We would need time to study and analyze if we could sustain it.”

In March, the village invited more than 100 community members to attend a forum at the John A. Anderson Recreation Center to discuss ways to send a message to lawmakers in Albany to express their opposition to the proposal.

“I want to thank all of the residents who came and listened to our forum, and came and supported us and wrote letters to our state legislators,” Baxley said. “Without their support, it may not have gotten done.”

Murray, however, said he wouldn’t be sure that the plan has been removed from the budget until it is 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.”

But that fight, Curran said, is still not over. “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,” he said in his statement. “These laws will seek to overpopulate and urbanize our villages on Long Island directly in opposition to the very reason why millions of families moved from New York City to Nassau County over the past seventy years.”