The following is excerpt of a Newsday article by Jonathan LaMantia that was published in the Monday, August 18th, 2022 edition of the paper on page A27. You can read the entire original piece here.
Suffolk County supported the project with $2.2 million in subsidies, as the county faces higher rents and record home prices, County Executive Steve Bellone said in a statement
“Suffolk’s funding of this development is an investment in our community and helps ensure a future in Suffolk County where residents can afford to stay,” he said.
Building more affordable housing on the East End is critical for the region’s economy, said Richard Murdocco, an adjunct professor in economic development and planning at Stony Brook University.
Three Mile Harbor “addresses a real-world need,” he said. “People in the service industries, first responders, teachers, nurses — the East End is its own economic ecosystem and it needs the ability to house people who aren’t multimillionaires in finance.”
Still, Murdocco said 50 units is a mere drop in the bucket and more cooperation across levels of government is needed to address the Island’s housing shortage. The governor’s attempt to boost the housing supply by requiring local governments to authorize more accessory dwelling units failed in February after officials across the state objected to the proposal. They cited concerns about infrastructure, such as sewer and water services, as well as the policy’s elimination of local control of zoning.
“Affordable housing is one of the largest planning failures in the Nassau-Suffolk region,” Murdocco said. “The fact that all of this fanfare is surrounding a 50-unit development shows you how difficult it is to tackle the affordability challenge in this region.”
Other recent projects built by Georgica Green include Riverview Lofts, which added 116 apartments in Riverhead, and Gansett Meadow’s 37 units in Amagansett.
