New Paltz Town Supervisor Neil Bettez expects that housing will be the top town issue in 2024. For a variety of reasons the cost of place to live is becoming increasingly unaffordable, and in New Paltz a multi-pronged strategy is being put in place in an attempt to reverse that trend. Tying together the disparate programs and approaches is a county-level scheme that will provide as-yet-unspecified incentives by putting some of these into place. Town officials are now working on one of the foundational steps to be certified as a “housing-smart community,” namely finding more residents to be part of a committee overseeing this work. The ideal applicant, said the supervisor, would be “smart, and have no agenda” when it comes to the end result; a mind that’s open to all possibilities is important. Additionally, committee members should be willing and able to do a lot of outreach work. “The ideas are easy,” said Bettez. What’s hard is making residents aware early and securing their support by explaining the impacts and benefits in a transparent manner.
While village officials have been putting energy into exploring ways to regulate rents and minimize evictions, the housing mix in the remainder of the town suggests different priorities. Having passed laws to tighten oversight on short-term rentals and to loosen requirements for building an accessory dwelling unit on residential lots — both of which hinge on owner occupancy — the town’s new building inspector is now finalizing the application process for these types of projects.
Both of those laws should earn the town government credit in the county’s housing-smart program, once those details are finalized. Bettez said that there’s still room to join the committee that’s going to track what qualifies and secure that credit. Committee members will likely need to engage is community outreach to help residents understand the benefits of whichever changes are being considered. “The ideas are easy,” said Bettez; the more challenging part is “getting buy-in.”
The supervisor noted that public input on housing issues doesn’t tend to include the views of people who might like to live the community, but aren’t here yet due to a lack of housing. In a 2018 study on public participation, the authors wrote, “We find that individuals who are older, male, longtime residents, voters in local elections, and homeowners are significantly more likely to participate in these meetings. These individuals overwhelmingly (and to a much greater degree than the general public) oppose new housing construction. These participatory inequalities have important policy implications and may be contributing to rising housing costs.” Through outreach, it may be possible to educate members of the public about the benefits of new housing before any action is taken, which could reduce such opposition.
New Paltz Apartments, which could bring hundreds of rental rooms to the community, is an important part of addressing the New Paltz housing crunch in Bettez’s eyes. If approved as envisioned, this project would entail converting a large portion of former agricultural land just south of campus along Route 32 into apartments, which would be marketed to and likely occupied by college students. It depends upon hookups to village sewer and water, which depend on annexation into the village. Both village and town boards will vote on that question as one of the final steps in approving the development, and the supervisor is in support.
The 1995 master plan for the town calls for putting the most dense developments as close to the village as possible. These 724 beds fit the bill, Bettez explained. This strategy clusters the human population and reduces the fragmentation to the habit for every other animal living in the area.
By expanding the housing options for college students, it’s hoped that it will become more affordable for recent graduates to find living accommodations, too. The trope of graduating from SUNY New Paltz and never leaving has shaped this community to some extent for decades, but the expense of housing has created something of a demographic cliff because those young adults are not sticking around. “We could have to close Duzine” Elementary School, Bettez believes. The supervisor has two children of elementary school age. “We need to attract people who want to stay after graduation.”
Farther afield, council members are working on overlay zoning that would reduce habitat fragmentation in the more rural parts of Plutarch, by making it possible to require houses to be built on lots larger than six acres be sited to minimize that type of environmental harm. This overlay district won’t actually change the amount of housing that can be built in that northeastern portion of town. The expected results will include a reduction in flooding and wildfires, the supervisor said. Bettez explained that this approach replaces the older approach, which was to increase the minimum lot size in order to reduce housing density it some areas. “It’s counterintuitive, but that just increases the cost of housing” instead of saving much of anything.
Also supportive of increased housing density near the village is the planned non-motorized travel lane planned along Henry W. Dubois Drive. Bettez believes that making it safer to travel along that road outside of a motor vehicle will make it easier for families to decide to live in that part of town. That project will require more borrowing to pay the local share of the cost, but Bettez wouldn’t want to stop it now even if those benefits were seen as clear. “It would cost us $500,000 not to do it,” because of grant requirements, and could prevent the municipality from getting additional federal funding in the future. “The first question on an application is whether you’ve received federal funding in the past, and what the outcome of that project was.”
Getting that bike path done is the infrastructure priority for the coming year, which means that getting town employees out of trailers and into a permanent town hall will have to wait a bit longer. Even now the old courthouse is being looked at, to determine if converting it would be feasible, and at what cost. In the long run a permanent town hall would reduce cost to taxpayers, because the overhead for those trailers is more than it likely would be for a real building.
Cost is a concern, and the town property tax levy has gone from $5,599,231 in 2016 to $9,225,464 for 2024. This year’s hike includes an additional $200,000 for the New Paltz Rescue Squad, the chief of which warned that the organization might otherwise have to secure other clients and put New Paltz residents at risk. The supervisor believes that if residents value the services received through taxes, such as the rescue squad, and for children and others to be able to get around safely without cars, that they will continue to express their support while voting.
If the dream of making it more affordable to live in New Paltz comes to pass, perhaps those votes will also come.
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