Town committees agree on affordable housing: May split on language in their proposals

Two Town committees have been pitted against one another on the issue of affordable housing. It’s not because the Community Housing Fund Advisory Board and Comprehensive Planning Advisory Committee hold different views on the issue.

They appear to agree affordable housing is a necessary component to maintaining the character of the community. But each committee wants to ensure wording on which they have been working won’t be compromised by wording the other group uses.

Community Housing Fund Advisory Board (CHFAB) members want to make clear the Housing Plan clearly reflects interests that they’ve gathered from surveys and public comments and reflects the outreach they and consultants Nelson Pope Voorhis have made.

Nelson Pope Voohis consultant Kathryn Eiseman was hired by the Town Board to work with both groups. She and her team have been gathering information and conducting outreach to help produce fact-based information that would be the same for both committees.

But last month, Comprehensive Plan Advisory Committee member Lily Hoffman said she wanted assurance that the CHFAB Plan wouldn’t constitute the entire chapter on housing. She said she would have preferred separate consultants instead of a shared consultant.

Town Attorney Stephen Kiely told the Comp Plan group its report would, by state law, have to include the CHFAB Housing Plan. But he said Comp Plan members could “massage” the section it uses when writing its section on housing.

On Sept. 8, CHFAB member and chairman of the Community Housing Board Chris DiOrio said he didn’t want to see the Housing Plan compromised by the Comprehensive Plan housing section.

The comments from each side seems to demonstrate a wariness each group has toward the other.

As for the main purpose of the Sept. 8 CHFAB meeting, it was to review the latest draft of the Housing Plan to ensure emphasis on some aspects of its approach are clear.

CHFAB Chairwoman Elizabeth Hanley communicated some requests to Ms. Eiseman who will discuss the latest draft at Tuesday’s Town Board work session.

There are no major changes in the thrust of the plan, but there are several clarifications on emphasis consistent with input from the public through surveys and meetings where people expressed their preferences.

Among the suggestions is to initially move on rental units, because rentals are more easily established and some can be created as accessory apartments to existing housing stock.

There was some initial discussion of possible incentives to encourage homeowners who could offer accessory apartments to do so. But whether that will be included in the final housing plan is unclear.

As for construction of new affordable housing, whether as rentals or sale houses, there is a clear preference from CHFAB members for sustainable green practices.

There will be another round of reviews of the draft and submission of a draft to the Suffolk County Planning Commission this month. On Oct. 11, a public hearing on the Island’s Housing Plan will be held, several weeks before the referendum on whether or not to employ a 0.5% real estate transfer tax as part of the funding used to help create affordable housing.

On Tuesday night, Sept. 13, the League of Women Voters of the Hamptons, Shelter Island and the North Fork is holding a virtual panel discussion featuring Assemblyman Fred Thiele (D-Sag Harbor), the man who authored the legislation creating the Community Housing Fund; Shelter Island Deputy Supervisor Amber Brach-Williams; East Hampton Town Director of Housing & Community Development Tom Ruhle; and Executive Director of the Southampton Town Housing Authority Curtis Highsmith.

The panel discussion can be seen at YouTube.com/c/SeaTVSouthampton at 7 p.m., Sept. 13 or watched on the same YouTube channel the following day.