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Tag: East End housing

  • Who Can Still Afford to Live on Shelter Island? Town Launches New Housing Survey

    Who Can Still Afford to Live on Shelter Island? Town Launches New Housing Survey

    By East End Now | Auxio.tv News

    Shelter Island is taking another look at one of the most difficult questions facing the East End: who can still afford to live in the communities where they work?

    The Town launched a new 2026 Housing Needs Assessment survey on August 25, asking residents, workers and business owners to describe the housing pressures they are experiencing. The survey is part of an update to Shelter Island’s 2023 Community Housing Plan. 

    Town officials say the new assessment is intended to measure current housing supply, demand, affordability and gaps, while accounting for changing population trends and market conditions. The results are expected to help shape future housing programs and policy decisions. 

    The survey is not limited to homeowners.

    It asks for input from year-round and seasonal residents, renters, people living with family or friends, workers who commute to the island, business owners and people experiencing temporary or unstable housing. The Town is also offering separate business surveys and Spanish-language versions. 

    That broad approach reflects the nature of Shelter Island’s housing problem.

    The Town’s own planning documents have acknowledged for years that affordable housing is difficult to produce on the island. A draft housing chapter for Shelter Island’s comprehensive plan notes that only one six-home ownership project had been completed since 1996, and because those houses were not permanently deed-restricted, the island no longer had any designated affordable units from that project. 

    The 2023 Community Housing Plan attempted to create a framework for addressing that shortage without importing large-scale development models that do not fit the island.

    Among its recommendations were year-round rental housing on Town-owned property and expanded use of accessory dwelling units. The plan identified two Town properties for potential housing and contemplated no more than two units at 69 North Ferry Road and eight units at 12 South Ferry Road. It specifically rejected large multistory apartment buildings as inappropriate for Shelter Island. 

    That distinction is important.

    Shelter Island does not have unlimited land, infrastructure or environmental capacity. The challenge is not simply producing the largest possible number of units. It is finding ways to keep workers, young families and longtime residents on the island without changing the character of the community that made people want to live there in the first place.

    The Town has also been pursuing accessory dwelling units as one part of that strategy. Its Community Housing Board promotes an ADU program that can help eligible property owners create secondary year-round housing units while maintaining residency and affordability requirements. 

    The new survey gives the Town a chance to find out whether those approaches are actually matching current needs.

    Housing markets can change quickly. A plan written three years ago may no longer reflect what renters are paying, what workers can afford or how many businesses are struggling to recruit employees because those employees cannot find housing nearby.

    That is what makes this survey more than another planning exercise.

    The central question is whether Shelter Island can preserve a functioning year-round community in a market where the value of property can increasingly exceed the earning power of the people who keep that community running.

    The Town is asking residents and workers to help answer that question.

    What happens after the answers come in will matter more.

    East End Now — Your East End. Your News.

  • Kiely Puts Home Rule at the Center of East End Assembly Campaign

    Kiely Puts Home Rule at the Center of East End Assembly Campaign

    By East End Now | Auxio.tv News

    Stephen Kiely is making home rule one of the clearest themes in his campaign for New York State Assembly.

    Kiely, the Republican candidate for the 1st Assembly District, argues that East End towns should keep control over major land-use decisions instead of having Albany impose one-size-fits-all housing policies.

    That position is tied closely to how he defines the problem.

    Kiely has not described the East End simply as having a housing shortage. His argument is that the region has an affordability problem — one that will not be solved by adding high-density development without regard for water, traffic, infrastructure and community character.

    That distinction matters on the East End.

    Southampton, Southold, Riverhead, East Hampton and Shelter Island all face different constraints. Some areas have limited wastewater capacity. Others face groundwater concerns, seasonal traffic, expensive land and roads that were never designed for major population growth.

    Albany can set a statewide housing goal.

    Local communities still have to live with the result.

    Kiely’s position is not that housing should stop being built.

    He has supported more targeted approaches, including accessory dwelling units, adaptive reuse of existing buildings and smaller-scale housing that fits the character and infrastructure of individual communities.

    The theme running through those ideas is local control.

    Kiely has made a similar argument on battery-storage projects, where he has opposed shifting more siting authority away from towns and toward the state.

    The principle is consistent: statewide policy should not erase local knowledge.

    That does not mean every local decision is automatically a good one. Towns can make mistakes too. But when development creates pressure on water, roads, emergency services and surrounding neighborhoods, the people closest to those consequences should have a meaningful role in deciding what gets approved.

    That is especially important on the East End, where land-use decisions can have long-term effects on groundwater and community character.

    Kiely’s campaign is therefore framing housing less as a race to produce the highest number of units and more as a question of what kind of housing fits the region, where it should go and who should make that decision.

    For voters in the 1st Assembly District, home rule may sound like a technical phrase.

    In practice, it is about something much simpler:

    Who gets the final say over how the East End grows?

    Kiely’s answer is clear. He believes those decisions should stay as close as possible to the communities that will live with them.

    Learn more about Stephen Kiely’s campaign:
    https://www.facebook.com/share/1Br8ZkgrrK/?mibextid=wwXIfr

    East End Now — Your East End. Your News.