Housing Task Force

Housing Task Force Meeting #20 Date: Thursday, October 24, 2024 @7:00 pm Location: Village of Port Chester Conference Room Attendees: Arley Arno, Chester Edwards, Monica Fonseca, Jane Lippman, Kathy Pandekakes, Catrina Shivers, Aldo Vitagliano, Andrew Weiss, Ursula Winchell. Absent: Margaret Adamson, Lisa Cordasco, Luis Yumbla. Guest speaker: Tim Foley CEO of the Building and Realty Institute (BRI) Meeting opened with motion approved unanimously at 7:24pm due to technical difficulties. Meeting minutes for October 10th, September 26th, and September 12th were approved via unanimously approved motion. Discussion: Tim Foley gave a brief bio of his experience with affordable housing and his role as CEO of the BRI. He explained affordability requirements and discussed supplemental tax credit options at the County, State and Federal Levels. He discussed subsidies available like the Brownfield Tax credit, which is available for toxic land sites being developed into housing. Mr. Foley explained that IDA’s can also offer incentives for development of housing. IDAs have recognized that housing creates more economic opportunity because it brings workers into the community. There are some statewide efforts to require that IDAs include union labor as one of their prerequisites for offering incentives. There is a statewide prevailing wage for construction labor, but affordable housing is exempted from that rule. The group discussed that Westchester County AMI is greater than the AMI within the village of Port Chester. Mr. Foley explained that Westchester County will be looking at a bill that addresses individual AMI rates more in touch with individual communities, versus an across the board County AMI. Mr. Foley explained how developers approach the affordable housing requirement when they do their cost analysis. It is a number. Other numbers are currently more problematic such as interest rate costs for financing given the current climate. Mr. Foley explained how a community can help streamline the process by having a Generic Environmental Impact Statement prepared which eliminates a burden on a developer interested in a housing or any project. Port Chester like New Rochelle had a generic EIS prepared when they passed their zoning so this burden has been addressed. Time to approvals is another big factor affecting developers who might be building out a project with affordable housing. There are efforts to establish a core curriculum for Land Use Boards, to have municipalities set a core curriculum for these volunteers. Two of the recommended core curriculum classes proposed are Westchester County Housing Needs Assessment overview and a historical overview of exclusionary zoning in Westchester County. The purpose is to educate volunteers on the history of housing in the County. Follow up: Chairman Edwards will follow up and explore using a different link for future meetings and adding Kathy Pandekakes as a cohost. Aldo Vitagliano will follow up with Stuart Rabin regarding the signing of the MOA for Tiffany Zezula and Rose Noonan. Next Meeting: Thursday, November 14, 2024 7pm at the Village Hall Conference Room 222 Grace Church St Port Chester NY 10573 Guest speakers will be Tiffany Zezula (Deputy Director of the Pace Land Use Law Center) Rose Noonan (Exec. Director of Housing Action Council) and Miles Monaghan (Housing Developer).