Multi-Family (High & Low ) Income Housing In Old Westbury?

[rkane99us]

The following email is an excellent summary  we received that  helps shed   light about  the current discussion &  petition  requesting a  Rezoning of   the Village Of Old Westbury to include    Multi Family Housing projects, such as  High and Low Income developments.

Most of the prior conversation seems driven by our  unsustainable real estate and school taxes . However, multi family housing will not likely result in lower taxes due to tax abatements nullifying any   tax revenues . 

However, rezoning  will result in every last piece of land being developed into 6 story apartment buildings.  This is not what most residents  mind when deciding to live here.      

If you are NOT in favor of REZONING Old Westbury to allow MULTI FAMILY HOUSING, please sign the petition:

https://vowca.org/signthepetition

EMAIL BELOW:

Dear friends and neighbors,

I just want to advise you of a recent discussion that came up in our village, the village of Old Westbury. A local builder is in contract pending REZONING of land zone rules in Old Westbury. The builder is interested in putting MULTI FAMILY HOUSING on a property in Old Westbury. This would entail up to FIVE 6 story BUILDINGS on a property off Post Rd called Erchless, the former Phipps property, which would increase Old Westbury's density by 25% and our residency by 33%. The current discussion proposes "expensive" 55+ housing in the form of 6 STORY BUILDINGS. This sounds lovely to many. However, to do this, it requires REZONING the village to now allow MULTI STORY and MULTI FAMILY HOUSING to be built here. To be clear, this sets a LEGAL PRECEDENT for future such development in the Village. Future developments may NOT be "luxury homes" for the 55+ population, but can be anything a builder with profit in mind envisions.

In August 2021, our Village Hall took a position that they will not take any action to REZONE the village at this time. Today, there are person(s) putting together a new petition to put this idea, the idea of REZONING Old Westbury, back on the table again. The petition states that it would bring "much needed revenue" to our Village. It cites a study that talks about how much revenue can be raised by new housing. However, what it does not mention is that in Old Westbury, the majority of our taxes go towards SCHOOL TAXES. In total, only a small portion of our total taxes go towards the village. The houses proposed are WESTBURY SCHOOLS - so it would bring minimal if any financial benefit to those living in Jericho schools or Wheatley schools.  

Furthermore, a new law - NYS 4265A - allows for an 8 year full/partial tax abatement for new homes being built for the first $750,000 value of EACH home. This means that even if this goes through, the village will single handedly shoulder the burden of police, water, traffic, roads, etc. with no benefit or minimal benefit to the village. More importantly, the character of the Village would forever be changed, and as property next to these multi story dwellings is devalued, so will the comparison values for the rest of our homes, effectively brining pricing of homes, of our investment in our homes, down and deflating it.

The question is - WHY? Why would we as residents give away the ZONING in our village, which currently calls for 2-5 acre plots?  Why would we want to bring down our property values in the future by now being a village that has MULTI-FAMILY HOUSING, increased traffic, etc? As a homeowner here, I feel strongly that the character of this Village is what makes Old Westbury so extremely special.

You may ask yourself why you were not aware of all of this. The reason is that you would need to physically attend board meetings and/or read all minutes in order to be. There is no mass communication system that the Village uses (the app does not send out reminders or information like this) so unless you are personally present, or seek this information for yourself, you will not know. I am informing you now as I recently found out myself. Here is a link to a "review" that the Village did of the zoning rules in response to the above, directly on the village website 

https://www.vowny.org/civicalerts.aspx?aid=191.

If you are NOT in favor of REZONING Old Westbury to allow MULI FAMILY HOUSING, please sign the petition:

https://vowca.org/signthepetition

This petition is simply stating that you, as a resident of Old Westbury, is not in favor of REZONING our Village to allow multi family housing to be build here. Please have EVERY family member in your household over 18 sign if you agree. In addition, forward this any resident of Old Westbury who you think would be interested in NOT having MULTI-FAMILY HOUSING in our Village.

Sincerely,

Tania Schwarzwald

PETITION STATEMENT

I oppose high-density, multifamily housing in Old Westbury and any zoning code amendment that would permit such development in the Village.

-- 

Tania M. Schwarzwald