Five Towns gags over Hochul’s suburb-busting zoning

If the idea was to get a rise out of Long Islanders, Gov. Kathy Hochul appears to have done the job.

Hochul’s latest poke at a suburban hornets’ nest came with her introduction in the state budget of a $25-billion plan that could override local zoning regulations, jettison single-family zoning and order municipalities to allow “accessory dwelling units” on owner-occupied residential property.

An accessory dwelling unit is a smaller independent residence on the same lot as a single-family home. The plan aims to increase the affordable housing stock. Local government would not have the power to prohibit ADUs. 

The mayors of the three largest villages in the Five Towns voiced their opposition to ADUs, as did Hempstead Town Supervisor Don Clavin who said: “We are not standing for it.”

Why is Lawrence Mayor Alex Edelman opposed? “Because anyone could turn a one-family house into a two-family house with the state’s blessing, and suburbia is damaged with quite a few more people in the neighborhood and more traffic,” he said, adding that the plan would be detrimental to home values. 

Cedarhurst Mayor Benjamin Weinstock said he opposed having the governor telling everyone on Long Island how to govern their local municipalities. “People live in villages to control its destiny,” he said, and if Hochul’s plan were to pass, “there would be no point to having [legal] control over the community.”

Weinstock said that village officials are closest to their residents, and are the “most accountable, responsive and have the best idea, best understanding” of a community’s character and how it should evolve. 

He noted that legal zoning can allow “mother-daughter” residences, one-family houses with two fully equipped apartments. “This not unheard of, but we don’t want to open the floodgates. We want to maintain a semblance of consistency and what people moved here for,” Weinstock said.

Loss of zoning control and the potential for an increase in traffic and a decline in quality of life are the primary reasons Atlantic Beach Mayor George Pappas said the village opposes Hochul’s plan.

“We fought for zoning in the village,” Pappas said, referring to when Atlantic Beach took legal action — all the way to federal court — and needed a countywide public referendum in 2002 for approval to create a village zoning board. “It’s a good idea that the villages band together,” he said.

There is some support for Hochul’s proposal. Lawrence Levy, dean of Hofstra’s National Center for Suburban Studies, told the Nassau Herald that the provision could help solve the affordable housing crisis.

“It’s easy to understand why the folks running the county, towns and villages don’t want Albany telling them what to do, but the potential law reflects the frustration with advocates for more and better affordable housing,” Levy said. “This could be one of the solutions to the lack of affordable places to live and an opportunity for homeowners to get a little more revenue to defray the high cost of property taxes.”