A developer of new and rehabilitated housing in Westchester, John Saraceno knows the obstacles to building midmarket projects in the county at a cost that allows him to set affordable rents for the young professionals he wants as tenants.
Land costs, building permits, high property taxes, water bills and other municipal fees and taxes make it “extremely difficult,” he said at a recent small-business forum the topic of which was attracting young professionals to Westchester. The forum was hosted by Assemblyman David Buchwald, the White Plains Democrat, at Fordham Westchester.
“It”™s unsustainable for anyone to continue to pay the property taxes, costs that you don”™t even see,” said Saraceno, president of Trinity Associates L.L.C., an Elmsford company that specializes in affordable housing projects. Unless the county”™s 425 taxing authorities are reduced in number, “You can”™t make it work,” he said.
To encourage midmarket housing development in former commercial buildings, Saraceno said towns and villages should create special downtown districts where parking-space requirements are “forgiven.” A 20-unit project can require nearly 30 parking spaces, he said. “Where are you going to get that in Westchester County?”
“I think if we created that special district and towns cooperated, a lot of these problems would be solved,” he said.
The developer was referring to the county”™s declining population of young working adults, particularly the 25- to 34-year-old age group, and the challenges in attracting those young professionals to Westchester and keeping those already living here from joining the youth migration to New York City.
Census tract patterns show that white young adults are moving from suburban Westchester and Long Island communities to upper Manhattan and parts of Brooklyn, said Alexander Roberts, executive director of Community Housing Innovations in White Plains, at the forum.
Since 2000, Westchester lost 12.83 percent of its 25- to 34-year-old population, he said, citing data from the U.S. Census Bureau”™s American Community Survey. Roberts drew on that data for his Community Housing Innovations report this year on the “demographic collapse” of the young adult workforce in the wealthiest communities of Westchester and Long Island.
Roberts reported the population losses were highest in the least diverse communities with the most expensive housing, “which happen also to be those that have almost no affordable multifamily housing.” Rye lost 63 percent of its 25- to 34-year-old population since 2000, followed by the northern Westchester communities of Pound Ridge, with a 58 percent population loss for that age group and Lewisboro, which saw a 54 percent decline in its young adult population. Scarsdale lost 52 percent of its 25- to 34-year-olds.
“They”™re not coming back,” Roberts said of those young urban migrants.
Rare among Westchester communities, the cities of White Plains and Peekskill had increases in their 25- to 34-year-old population of 6 percent and 8 percent, respectively, according to Roberts.
He and others at the forum pointed to White Plains and city officials”™ focus on developing downtown housing for professionals as a prime example of what can be done to keep and attract a young workforce here.
“White Plains is a poster child, a model for how it should be done,” said Roberts.
Rather than target affordable housing projects for low-income residents, “The focus should be on getting these professionals to stay because they will bring the prosperity and the housing development that will bring prosperity for all,” Roberts said. “It”™s really more effective to build (moderate income housing) for that cohort.”
Commercial real estate broker Kevin McCarthy, vice president at CBRE”™s Westchester and Fairfield County office and a founding member of the Westchester County Association”™s Young Professionals group, said the group”™s members focused their initial efforts on housing at price points suited to their incomes. But they did not want “to be forced into what”™s called affordable housing,” he said.
“Affordable is almost like Section 8 housing,” he said. “It”™s a dirty word when you bring it up.” The young professionals group adopted the term “professional” or “attainable” housing instead.
McCarthy said he and his peers want to live near mass transit in a mixed-use area. “There needs to be other things going on,” he said. “You can”™t put us on an island where we have to take a car everywhere.”
The broker said he urged county officials “to look at every single train station that they have for development” of moderately priced housing. “That”™s where young professionals want to be.”
In contrast to much of Westchester, McCarthy said the city of Stamford, where CBRE has its suburban office, “is killing it with basically creating a city within a city” near Long Island Sound and the Metro-North Railroad station. For companies searching office locations, “Stamford”™s really going to get a lot of looks,”™ he said.
In attracting young professionals and the companies that employ them, “Connecticut is our biggest challenge,” he said. “It”™s also our biggest opportunity.”
Maria Freburg, senior vice president at Webster bank and chairwoman of The Business Council of Westchester”™s Rising Stars Alumni group, said Ridge Hill Westchester, the mixed-use development in Yonkers, downtown White Plains, the redeveloped Yonkers waterfront and the village of Ossining are examples of what young professionals are looking for in live-work communities. The I-287 and Route 119 office park corridors offer “an opportunity for mixed use where you can have that retail shopping, places to live, doctors”™ and dentists”™ offices.”
Freburg said young professionals “are willing to spend more on that housing piece” when applying for home mortgages.
“I believe the essential problem here is supply and demand,” Roberts said. “The reason young people can”™t buy an affordable place in Westchester is not economic; it”™s political. I think we need to break down some of these byzantine zoning regulations” that hinder the development of moderate income and affordable housing in Westchester”™s wealthy communities.
“The gorilla in the room here: NIMBYism ”“ Not In My Backyard,” said Roberts. He said the impact of that long-standing community opposition to rental housing projects should be analyzed for “what this is costing us in missed opportunities” if developers were allowed to operate in a free market unimpeded by exclusionary zoning.
“The ugly secret is NIMBY,” said Albert Annunziata, executive director of the Building and Realty Institute of Westchester and the Mid-Hudson Region. “The NIMBY influence makes politicians wither in its presence.”
“Change comes slowly to Westchester,” Annunziata said.
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