Astorino, Municipalities Respond With Vehemence Against HUD Report Cards
Report cards sent last week to 31 municipalities referenced in the affordable housing settlement raised the ire of County Executive Rob Astorino and municipal officials who were miffed that local governments were being pulled into the fight.
Astorino, accompanied on June 12 by a group of mayors and supervisors from around Westchester, were upset with how the report cards included reviews of local affordable housing and zoning practices and seemingly assigned benchmark allocations that far exceeded the terms of the 2009 settlement between the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the county.
Astorino emphasized that HUD and the county had agreed to develop at least 750 units of affordable housing in the county by the end of 2016. He announced that Westchester was ahead of schedule with 386 units having now been financed or under construction. The county was working with communities named in the lawsuit to find suitable locations to build the housing, Astorino said.
“I’d rather work in cooperation with communities, and not litigation, to build the housing,” he said.
The report cards, using a 2004 Rutgers University study, revealed that the county should build 5,847 units of affordable housing. Those recommended benchmarks were never accepted by the county. Those figures include 975 units for Mount Pleasant, 756 units for Harrison, 666 units for North Castle and 239 units for Lewisboro.
Statements in recent communications from HUD calling the 750-unit benchmark a floor, have caused Astorino and other officials to ask whether the county’s obligation to the federal government will be completed should it comply with the 2009 settlement agreement by the Dec. 31, 2016, deadline.
Astorino suggested that HUD is confusing local zoning with discrimination by continually refusing to accept the county’s analysis of impediments, which he said is in its seventh draft and more than 2,000 pages long and accompanied by research and supporting analysis by Pace University.
According to Astorino, HUD has determined that specific zoning ordinances prevent the building of affordable housing in many locations. Height, density, acreage, water and sewage and other environmental restrictions in local zoning codes often prevent many large structures from being built.
Astorino said the county and its municipalities would continue to build affordable housing on its own terms.
“The settlement terms do not allow preference for local community members or volunteers,” Astorino said. “There is an equation on how any seniors can be placed and new construction versus rehabilitation. All of those things are built into the settlement, which makes it very difficult in some cases to build affordable housing.”
Lewisboro Supervisor Peters Parsons said because of stringent watershed restrictions imposed by New York City and the state of Connecticut there is no room to build in his community.
“Which means we cannot build anything to ensure the pristine water supply,” Parsons said.
Mount Pleasant Supervisor Joan Maybury said she believes her community has home rule on its side.
“The federal monitor cannot dictate until that is battled out in the courts,” Maybury said. “Right now our zoning is as it is and Westchester County is as it is because of the zoning, and that zoning is not discriminatory.”
When questioned recently by the County Board of Legislators on whether the numbers contained in the report card were new benchmarks, federal monitor James Johnson responded that the higher requirement is not contained in the settlement but that the 750 units is a “floor, not a ceiling.”
Johnson further explained that while it was never suggested that the county must dismantle zoning in any neighborhood, it “has been consistent in its directive that the county must examine the impact of municipal zoning on housing development to determine whether zoning is responsible for creating or perpetuating patterns of segregation, and that the county should examine whether existing zoning schemes properly take into account regional housing needs, and develop a clear strategy to overcome exclusionary zoning practices.”
The report cards sent to the 31 municipalities and each response are available for public viewing on the county website at www.westchestergov.com
