An updated study and interactive map created by The Center for Urban Research at the CUNY Graduate Center and Community Development Long Island found that multi-family housing is, if not banned, not as of right across the vast majority of Nassau and Suffolk counties.
The Long Island Zoning Atlas paints a picture of a region where zoning is a widespread obstacle to multi-family housing, even though some believe it should be part of the region’s mix amid a housing shortage that Gov. Kathy Hochul estimates at 800,000 units statewide.
The zoning atlas is a joint project of the Center for Urban Research at CUNY’s Graduate Center and Community Development Long Island, created with the support of the Rausch Foundation and the New York Community Trust.
The atlas finds that across Long Island’s more than 1,200 zoning districts, single-family housing is allowed on almost 89% of land that doesn’t overlap with environmentally protected areas.
Only 11 zoning districts, two in Nassau County and nine in Suffolk, require public hearings for single-family housing. Multifamily housing is as of right in less than 10 percent of the region.
Nowhere man
“Two, three, or four-plus family zoning is almost nowhere,” according to the Atlas. “Almost none of Long Island’s zoning districts allow two, three, or four-plus family housing.”
Only 8.5% of zoned land not within environmentally protected areas allows two-family housing and only 3.6% allows three-family and four or more family housing.
Zoning ordinances prohibit, as of right, two-family housing across almost 92% of Long Island’s buildable land, while three or four-plus-family housing is prohibited throughout more than 96% of this area.
“The data isn’t necessarily surprising,” said Gwen O’Shea, president and CEO of Community Development Long Island, a nonprofit focusing on housing development and financing. “It supports us in thinking about development moving forward and what may need to be changed to allow that to happen.”
The atlas shows Long Island as an area with a large population, including large swathes of land that currently prevent multi-family housing from going up.
“The map shows that a lot of places don’t allow more than single-family housing,” said Steven Romalewski, director of the CUNY Mapping Service for the Center for Urban Research at The Graduate Center in Manhattan. “That’s a general concern about affordable housing advocates, that there’s a need for zoning to change to create a diversity of housing because we’re in a housing crisis.”
Using the data
The data also provides a tool that can make zoning, often an obscure and complex process, more transparent at least regrading single- and multi-family housing options.
“Anyone can now easily access this kind of information about whether zoning is helpful or not for a diversity of housing options,” said Romalewski. “It’s essential information that didn’t exist in one place before.”
He said this zoning atlas—including towns, cities, and close to 100 villages—is the first such map in New York State, at longislandzoningatlas.org, although some are being made nationwide.
To find information about zoning districts, you can type in street addresses or look at the map.
“You can see regionally and zoom in to look at specific districts,” Romalewski said
O’Shea said the atlas could be a tool for developers, planners and others to better view local zoning.
“Presenting the information in an apples to apples comparison promotes an understanding of trends and strengthens planning,” she said.
Considering change
Some said the data demonstrate that zoning in place for many years may be antiquated, blocking the construction of multi-family even on a small scale.
“Our exclusionary zoning regime was designed 100 years ago to prevent the construction of affordable or multi-unit housing,” said Ian Wilder, an attorney who leads Long Island Housing Services, opposing housing discrimination and pushing for affordable housing. “If we want those outcomes on the scale that we need them on Long Island, we need to change our systems.”
Unincorporated towns and incorporated village zoning, much like other districts, allow single-family housing as of right in over 87% of unincorporated areas, while under 9% allow two-family housing, and 4% allow three or four or more family housing
Almost all, or 94%, of the non-environmentally protected land within village zoning districts allows single-family housing, while only 6.7% of these zoning districts allow two-family housing.
A scant 3% of village districts allow three-family housing, and 2.6% allow four or more family housing.
“In some towns, single-family housing is essentially the only type of housing allowed in zoning districts that are primarily residential,” according to the atlas.
In the unincorporated areas of East Hampton, Southampton, and Southold, all primarily residential zoning allows single-family housing while 1% or less of that land allows two-, three-, four- or more family housing.
“If we want those outcomes on the scale that we need them on Long Island, we need to change our systems,” Wilder said of a need for more multi-family housing. “On Long Island, homeowners can’t afford their mortgages, and tenants can’t afford their rent. That creates a market for unsafe, illegal apartments.”
Residents seeking income sometimes rent out spaces in houses, violating local zoning codes.
“No one wants to live in a basement or attic, but we are giving them no other choice,” Wilder said.
Hochul, Wilder added, “tried to change the systems twice” by proposing accessory dwelling unit reform and her Housing Compact.
“Both proposals by Governor Hochul had already been road-tested in other states to provide more housing,” Wilder said.
O’Shea said some communities are supporting the state’s Pro Housing community initiative, looking at revitalizing, including housing.
District decisions
James Coughlan, executive vice president and partner at Tritec Real Estate, which has developed a wide range of multi-family housing across Long Island, supports creating overlay districts rather than outright zoning changes.
“I think it needs to change, but my preferred method to change is to create an overlay district,” Coughlan said. “If you create an overlay district, it should come with a responsibility.”
Coughlan added that if zoning changes, a property’s value increases instantaneously. But if you create an overlay district, some owners can opt in, typically with capital improvements that benefit the municipality.
Not all areas, however, are as restrictive as much of the region with some cities that are more permissive regarding multi-family.
The City of Glen Cove allows three- and more-family housing in all of its primarily residential zoning districts and one- and two-family housing in 99% of those districts.
The City of Long Beach allows two-family housing in almost 52% of its primarily residential districts and three- and more-family housing in 12% of those districts.
Oyster Bay and North Hempstead allow two-family housing in 53% and 40%, respectively, of the primarily residential districts in their towns’ unincorporated areas.
However, they allow 3—and 4-plus-family housing in very few of the primarily residential zoning districts in the unincorporated parts of those towns.
A scant less than 1% of North Hempstead allows 3-family housing, only 2.3% allows 4-plus-family housing, and in Oyster Bay, only 3.4% allows 3 and 4-plus-family housing. So there are exceptions, but some say that the rules that govern real estate need to be modified.
“Some multi-unit housing can be built under exclusionary zoning, but only a small fraction of what is needed,” Wilder said. “If we continue on this path, we will hollow out our economy and lose political power as states that are building multi-unit housing will attract workers and will increase their congressional representation.”
