Mayor speaks out against Hochul’s plan

Rockville Centre Mayor Francis Murray delivered a statement at the village meeting on Monday criticizing Gov. Kathy Hochul’s New York Housing Compact.

The governor’s statewide strategy, announced last month, is intended to address the housing crisis, with the goal of building 800,000 new homes throughout the state. Part of the plan also requires municipalities with Metropolitan Transportation Authority rail stations to rezone to allow for higher-density residential development.

“New York faces a housing crisis that requires bold actions and an all-hands-on-deck approach,” Hochul stated in her State of the State address last month. “Every community in New York must do their part to encourage housing growth to move our State forward and keep our economy strong. The New York Housing Compact is a comprehensive plan to spur the changes needed to create more housing, meet rising demand, and make our state a more equitable, stable, and affordable place to live.”

Murray said that under the Transit Oriented Development Act of 2023, the state would give communities within a half-mile of any Long Island Rail Road station three years to adopt land-use regulations to allow for more high-density development.

“Ladies and gentlemen, this would destroy life on Long Island as we know it,” the mayor said. “It would destroy suburbia. It dismantles our zoning codes.”

If a city, village, or town does not meet the three-year target, a fast-track approval process could amend its municipal zoning law, creating a new zoning code intended to foster the development of residential housing.

Murray, who is president of the New York Conference of Mayors, representing more than 550 local governments across the state, said he recently went to Albany to speak with over 400 elected officials.

“I pointed out why this is a horrific idea for our state,” he said. “I told them we are still part of the United States of America. We are a democracy, not a dictatorship.”

He referred to the housing compact as a “mandate without representation,” suggesting that such a measure would undermine the state Constitution, which allows home rule zoning to be amended by villages, cities, townships, and counties — but not the state.

“This is an outrage,” Murray said. “The New York state Governor was not elected to rule the people. She was supposed to serve the people.”

While in Albany, he said, he spoke with Hochul’s representatives and told them how the compact would negatively impact many of the already overcrowded communities on Long Island.

“This mandate is wrong on all levels,” Murray said he told Hochul’s staffers. “You cannot paint New York state with a broad brush.”

Murray said that Hochul devised the policy without seeking the opinions of municipal leaders who are requesting a seat at the table.

In Nassau County, he said, the sewers are already at capacity, schools are overflowing, roads and railways are overcrowded, emergency services are overtaxed, and police are responding to more calls than ever.

Murray met with Senators Andrea Stewart Cousins, Kevin Thomas and Jack Martin and Assemblymen Carl Heastie and Brian Curran, none of whom, he said, think the compact is a good idea.

“This is about us on Long Island,” Murray said. “We need to push back. We need to fight this for the survival of all of us who live on Long Island, our children, and our grandchildren. So we need your help.”

Deputy Mayor Kathy Baxley echoed Murray’s concerns, noting how the housing compact was a major topic of discussion during a recent Nassau County Village Officials Association meeting. Based on the group’s talks, Baxley said, the village board planned to invite Rockville Centre community leaders to a special meeting, at which trustees will urge attendees to send emails to state representatives, urging that the housing compact be removed from the executive budget.

“We want to have an email campaign sent to every single representative,” Baxley said. “If it’s not taken out of the budget, at least they will know in numbers that we are against this.”

Village Trustee Katie Conlon said that the impact on roads, parking, and schools would cripple the community, and could overload the existing infrastructure.

“Rockville Centre is bustling and thriving,” Conlon said. “But it was extremely congested. And to think of what could happen if this were to go through — it would be detrimental to our village. We simply do not have the space to grow.”

She said that while this proposal may have great success in communities upstate, it cannot be uniformly applied statewide. “Communities across Long Island, specifically Nassau County, must heed this call to action to preserve our suburban towns and villages that we chose to call home,” Conlon said.

Trustee Michael Sepe said that a few months back, the board commissioned a study of the village’s population density, sewage capacity, power grid, parking restrictions, and school district populations. Board members also welcomed local input from those who wanted more apartments for people who commute into New York City and those who opposed the concept, in order to come to an informed consensus.

“Based upon local concerns we did not feel it was a good fit for Rockville Centre,” Sepe said, “there was a general consensus that one-size-fits-all, top-down dictates from Albany were a bad idea.”

Sepe said the state’s plan calls for 25 housing units per acre in each transit-oriented zone, and that communities that don’t meet those requirements will be punished with decisions that are “equally horrible,” like allowing accessory dwelling units. He also said that there is still hope that the plan can be stopped if people can put aside their political affiliations and realize it’s not a left-versus-right issue.

“It’s literally those who believe in total government control versus those that believe in any local rights and who want to have a say in the character of their neighborhood and where they choose to live,” Sepe said, “irrespective of what Albany dictates.”

Village officials anticipate continuing the discussion of the New York Housing Compact at a special meeting on March 1.