Guest Editorial: Housing, Community Character, and Our Common Future

As Croton's newest residents begin moving into Maple Commons today, our mayor weighs in on many recent discussions about housing policy in the village.

by Brian Pugh, Mayor of Croton-on-Hudson

Thank you to “Croton Chronicle” for the chance to communicate with the community with this guest editorial.  I’d like to take this opportunity to address the applications that are currently being considered by the Croton-on-Hudson Board of Trustees and the issue of housing more broadly.

To summarize:

1. New homes are needed to preserve the economic diversity of our community and the social character of our village. The housing shortage is felt acutely among residents with low-to​- moderate incomes. Currently, slightly more than 1 in 10 residents spend half their income on housing, according to the latest update to the Housing Needs Assessment. Some are even forced to live in substandard or overcrowded housing because of the dearth of alternatives.

2. This is not a fact of life, but a side effect of public policy. Our historic practice of almost exclusively permitting new single-family homes worked when there was vacant land available for development. With these greenfield opportunities all but gone, allowing some new, appropriately sited multi-family homes is the best way to accommodate our community’s housing needs.

3. Without new housing options, Croton-on-Hudson will have no opportunities for seniors looking to downsize, recent college graduates seeking to return to their hometown, and new residents including opportunities for working class and middle class residents. These new residents who would contribute to our village will be pushed to other areas.

4. Our Comprehensive Plan recognizes the need for additional multifamily housing to serve the needs of a diverse population--including seniors looking to downsize, young people looking to get a start and working people that simply need a place that they can afford. ​We must do this in a manner that incorporates these homes into our community and does so in a manner that is consistent with public resources. ​

5. Even as we add new homes, the things we value most about the village, like our access to nature and “small town” charm will remain. Croton-on-Hudson is among the least densely populated villages in Westchester, far more sparsely settled than communities like Irvington, Ardsley or Dobbs Ferry. 

6. The scope of change in the built environment being considered is modest. The entire Transit Oriented Development zone is less than 1 % of the total area of the village. The overwhelming majority of housing in the Village will remain single family homes Almost 1/3 of the Village is designated parkland and open space. 

7. Each proposal for new housing is subject to careful review on a case-by-case basis, that includes consideration of the sufficiency of public resources.

8. To help us evaluate the impact of a proposal, the Village can, and usually does, retain an outside independent planning consultant at the applicant's expense. 

9. If a proposed housing development is not right for Croton-on-Hudson, if it will overtax village resources, it will either be amended or rejected.​

10. Currently, school enrollment is down and our water & sewer systems have excess capacity. 

11. Attracting new investment to the village will also help support local businesses by building our local customer base and sharing the property tax burden more broadly.

12. Our village’s work on housing is part of a concerted statewide effort to address the housing shortage. Croton was one of the first pro-housing communities in New York,  giving us access to a $650M pool of state funds.

13. Each new home makes modest progress on the housing issue, but it makes a world of difference to a family that is able to live in our village—whether they’re a longtime resident struggling to stay or a newcomer that wants to add to our community.

I will elaborate on these points below. Further, as always, I invite those wishing to learn more to reach out to me directly: bpugh@crotononhudson-ny.gov

Current Proposals

Currently, the Village is reviewing several special permit applications for multifamily housing & mixed-use developments. The most notable of these proposal are:

• 1 Croton Point Avenue: A proposal for 100 units of housing for the underused overflowing parking lot at the Croton-Harmon train station (Lot A) and an adjoining privately owned parcel. Per the term sheet agreed to by the proposer, WBP LLC, and the Village, the Village would be paid $2.3M for Lot A. Depending on whether the project receives funding through the New York State Affordable Homeownership Opportunity Program (AHOP), the building may consist of affordable condominiums for those earning at least 80% of the Area Median Income (AMI). If the building is not funded by AHOP, it will be 80% market rate with the remainder affordable rentals (for those with a maximum income of 60% of AMI). WBP was chosen by the Village as the developer for Lot A following a Request for Proposals process. Regardless of whether the building is all affordable or mixed market-rate & affordable, there will be no payment in lieu of taxes (PILOT) agreement--the building will be fully assessed on the basis of its income. Currently, the Village is reviewing a special permit application for the Lot A proposal. A final contract of sale would be agreed to after the special permit is issued.

• 1 Half Moon Bay Drive: The Village of Croton-on-Hudson received a zoning petition requesting amendments to Zoning Code to allow the property owner to redevelop the property at 1 Half Moon Bay Drive, currently used as a tire storage and logistics warehouse, into a transit-oriented multifamily residential development. A zoning petition is a discretionary item for the Board of Trustees to consider; the Board is under no obligation to accept the petition. A thorough review will be conducted by the Board and upon the completion of the review, the petition may be granted in full, granted partially or rejected. The owner proposes building 280 units of rental housing on-site, 90% of which would be market rate and 10% (28 units total) would be affordable rentals for those earning up to 60% of AMI. As a predominantly market rate project, the 1 HMB proposal would not be eligible for a PILOT. 

Detailed information can be found on the projects & initiatives page of the village website.

I strongly believe that we must add both market rate and affordable homes to our community. But we need to do so in a way that matches our community’s resources, minimizes & mitigates impacts, and maximizes the benefits to the community.

There is currently no evidence that any proposal being considered would place undue demand on public resources--of course this question will be investigated in greater detail in the coming months. Our water and sewer infrastructure are at approximately 60% capacity, as reported by the Village Manager at the Board’s July 18th work session. Enrollment in both the Hendrick Hudson and Croton-Harmon school districts have fallen significantly in recent years, as it has throughout the region. We remain in regular contact with the school districts to ensure that land use decisions are made with the best data available. Nonetheless, each housing proposal is reviewed on a case-by-case basis to evaluate its possible impact.

Each of these proposals is subject to detailed, serious review under the State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQRA). As part of that review, we will have to analyze the sufficiency of public infrastructure and impacts on traffic patterns. As part of the special permit process under the Village Code, the Board will have to consider, among other issues, the accessibility of all proposed structures to fire and police protection and the preservation of ecological or environmental assets of the site or adjacent lands.

Our review will be public, data-driven, and fact-based. The Board, with the Planning Board and other agencies, will carefully weigh the pros and cons. It is our full authority to revise any proposal or deny it, as exemplified by the many changes that previous projects have had to incorporate based on stakeholder input.

Many residents have shared concerns about growth and its impact on our community. It's important to remember that proposed projects won't happen all at once. Multifamily housing takes years. We'll have opportunities to assess new proposals based on the impact of current projects and lessons learned from existing housing.

Each proposal undergoes careful review with public input. Proposals are amended in response to the data and citizen feedback.

As new housing is added to our community, it is important to remember that the things that are most important to us about our community will remain. Our village is one of the most thinly settled villages in Westchester County:

To any fair observer, villages like those listed above are archetypal “small towns” and Croton-on-Hudson is nowhere near their level of development.

To reach the same density of the next most densely populated community, Irvington, would require a ⅓ increase in the village population. Realistically, that is not on the near-horizon as we pursue a 1% average annual growth rate for new homes as part of the Pro-Housing Communities initiative (discussed in greater detail later on).

Broadly speaking, our land-use and pattern of development is fixed, as shown in the following table from our Comprehensive Plan:

Croton-on-Hudson is predominantly a community of single-family homes. That will remain the case.  In these discussions about “Transit Oriented Development” (TOD), including the possible expansion proposed for 1 Half Moon Bay Drive, we are looking at a portion of the village that is zoned industrial—approximately 0.5% of the village’s total area. That’s deliberate. 

When the Village adopted TOD in 2022, we sought to minimize the impact of the change on the community at large. Therefore, we limited it to the industrial areas of the village in proximity to the train station, areas that do not have immediate residential neighbors and where the new homes would benefit local business with new customers rather than disrupt an existing neighborhood. 

Scale is an important consideration. There is a reason why the new affordable housing at Maple Commons looks the way that it does. It was through dialogue and compromise that Maple Commons reached its current form: 2-stories, 33-units and 50-foot setbacks from the neighboring residential property. The Village, through both the Board of Trustees and the Planning Board, sought to make something that would complement the neighborhood. That is the same approach we take on all proposals.

That is also why the Board is considering the zoning text amendment petition from the owners of 1 Half Moon Bay--because it is in a light industrial zone. Simply put, there is no existing residential neighborhood, in any meaningful sense, that new homes at that location would need to fit in with. If a similar petition was made for an existing single-family neighborhood, I would not support it moving forward and I could not imagine the Board doing so either.

Last, but definitely not least, the natural beauty of our village will be preserved. As shown above, a significant portion of the Village is “open space or recreation” thanks to the presence of Croton Point Park, village parks, the Audubon preserves and designated conservation areas. That’s a share that has been growing over time with the addition of Croton Landing and Gouveia Park. 

Our parks are sacrosanct and will stay that way.

The true risk for our community character is not smart growth and affordability, but rather stagnation and shortage.

The Question: What is “Community Character” and What Does Housing Have to Do with it?

Discussions about housing and land use policy often put community character at the heart of the conversation. It’s an essential issue, but what is community character? 

Is community character just our built environment or is it something deeper? I think community character is mostly about our social and cultural environment. In short, community character is about our people and the values that we espouse

The Village that I grew up in was one where working- and middle-class people could afford to live. It was not a place that was unattainable to even people with solid six-figure incomes.

The Croton-on-Hudson that I grew up in was a great mix of people, one that welcomed new homes and created opportunities for residents old and new. Unless we act, that will not be the Croton-on-Hudson of tomorrow.

The Trend: Stagnant Supply

The simple reality is that our housing supply has not kept pace with demand, or kept up with historic patterns of growth. The law of supply and demand applies to housing as it does to any other good. The mismatch between the supply of housing in our community and the unmet housing demand has contributed to continuous rising housing costs and unbalanced the housing market at the expense of tenants and would-be homeowners.

For most of Croton-on-Hudson’s history, growth has been part of our village’s story. Whether it was the creation of “GI Village” on Wells Avenue that housed many veterans of the Second World War or the addition of Beekman Avenue in what used to be known as “the draw” a generation later. However, in recent years, that tradition of homebuilding has all but vanished from our community:

After over a century of this pattern of development, vacant land available for construction of new single-family homes has all but disappeared. Now and again, an isolated new parcel will have a new home built on it, but these are few and far between. There are no opportunities for another GI Village, but it is possible to meet our housing needs through infill development and the creative reuse of existing properties.

The Consequences: Housing Cost Burden Many & Limit Opportunity

The current housing shortage affecting our community is harming many residents in our Village. More than 1 in 10 residents are spending half their income or more on housing, according to the latest update to the Housing Needs Assessment.

Rents continue to climb faster than the rate of inflation. Many tenants, some of whom have lived here for decades and made important contributions to our community, will have to decide whether to abandon our community or pay an ever-growing share of their income on housing.

To address this issue, the Village enacted local rent stabilization. In May 2003, the Village declared a housing emergency and adopted the Emergency Tenant Protection Act (ETPA). ETPA provides for limiting increases in rent for units in buildings constructed before 1974. The permissible rent increase is determined by the Westchester County Rent Guidelines Board. ETPA communities set a minimum number of units in a building to require ETPA coverage. On March 27, 2023, the Village Board expanded the law adopted by the Village in 2003 to all qualifying multi-family buildings with 6 or more units (the broadest coverage permissible under state law). 

Although it provides urgently needed relief from ever-rising rent, rent stabilization is a band aid on a serious structural issue. ETPA is a blunt instrument. It only covers a subset of homes built before 1974 and does not create any new homes. The fundamental imbalance in the marketplace that exists when demand far exceeds supply persists. The effects of this imbalance manifest in a number of ways.  As reported by the Journal News:

The stress renters face is real. Spending more and more of their income on an apartment means having less and less to spend on other essentials, such as food and health care. Add children to the mix and the situation gets even more dire. A study published in January's journal "Social Science & Medicine" looked at the health effects that the volatile housing market has on renters. "As rents rise, health-related spending is often crowded out," the report said. "Poor households with children who are moderately rent-burdened (i.e., 30–50% of income dedicated to rent) spend 57% less on healthcare and 17% less on food compared to unburdened households."

Others must stay in substandard or overcrowded housing due to the lack of alternatives.  There have been cases where residents have temporarily been without a home because their apartment became uninhabitable and others have reached out to me because they are their neighbors will not contact code enforcement out of fear of retaliation by their landlord or they will not be able to find another place to stay if their home is found to be unsafe.

The path to homeownership is no easier.  According to the updated Housing Needs Assessment, purchasing a single-family home in Croton-on-Hudson would be beyond the financial means of someone earning the median income for Croton-on-Hudson (approximately $150,000).  That is to say, for most of us living here now, we had the good fortune of finding homes when we did and if we had to do so again today, we could not.  

In such a housing market, what hope do the graduates of our local high schools have of returning to their hometown? To have a realistic path to buying a home in the Village that raised them, a native Crotonite would need to either have the good luck of having an unusually well-compensated career or access to substantial family resources.

Similarly, homeowners looking to downsize will need to look beyond the Village for their retirement.

The lack of new construction in the Village may hurt our tenants and would-be homebuyers most acutely, but it also impacts our current homeowners and small businesses. The absence of new construction, current homeowners must pay the lion share of the property tax levy.

With the establishment of the property tax cap (which limits tax levy increases to 2% or the rate of inflation--whichever is lower), local governments and school districts have controlled the growth of property taxes. The Village’s tax levy today is, in real, inflation-adjusted terms, lower today than when the property tax cap was first enacted in 2012.

That is good news, especially for those with limited incomes. But the cap only limits growth and only in a relative sense--in nominal terms taxes continue to increase, if more slowly. It is of course possible to lower taxes, but that requires corresponding cuts to spending and the loss of services that residents have come to rely on. 

The only way to provide genuine tax relief without cutting services is by growing the tax base—

 the value of taxable property in the Village. When the rate of tax levy growth is controlled, as we have done AND the tax base grows, it is possible to provide meaningful tax relief. 

The 2023-24 budget saw no increase in the property tax rate, though the levy did rise modestly, because we were able to grow the tax base. Consequently, residents benefited from a genuine tax freeze. 

Last year’s budget was the first one in more than a decade where the median home did not pay more taxes. That is something we should continue to try to replicate whenever possible.

Another key to managing property taxes is a robust commercial sector in our village. Commercial properties also add to the tax base and consume relatively few public services. Currently, commercial real estate in our region continues to struggle, especially since the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Of course, our village has not been immune to this trend and we’ve seen some well-loved businesses close despite the best efforts of their owners and the patronage of loyal customers. Fortunately, in many cases, a new business has taken their place in our village’s economic ecosystem. 

Nonetheless, that is no reason for complacency. One empty storefront is one too many. Every vacant commercial property is a lost opportunity and, by reducing foot traffic in our commercial areas, a drag on nearby businesses. 

To support our local businesses, the Village has worked with local partners to organize events that bring visitors to our community. For the long term what is needed is a reliable customer base. 

That can be accomplished, at least in part, by the addition of new residents to the community--especially in places where they can walk to local businesses. Transit Oriented Development and the multifamily inclusive zoning for Riverside Avenue & Municipal Place will, in time, place customers at the figurative doorsteps of our local businesses. 

The Response: Planning & Policy

The current housing challenge is not new. Housing is something that the Village government, across successive boards and mayoral administrations of various political compositions have sought to address. It was the late Mayor Roland Bogardus (R) who created the Croton Housing Task Force and paved the way for the first affordable housing in our village. It was Mayor Bob Elliott (D) who enacted the rent stabilization that kept Bari Manor affordable for many Croton families. And it was a Village Board of mixed political composition that unanimously adopted our 2017 Comprehensive Plan Update, which recognized the need for new multifamily housing:

Adapting housing, transit, recreation and buildings and public spaces will help a vibrant and engaged senior population to securely age in place and contribute to a vibrant community. At the same time, the Village must provide the services and quality of life that will attract and retain the new Village immigrants and younger workforce needed to replace a labor force that is shrinking as the population ages.” (P. 55). 

Recent development in the Village has provided needed additional housing units in the Village…these developments have provided mainly single-family homes best suited for families. At the same time, the demand for appropriately‐sized, affordable housing for aging Croton‐on‐Hudson residents, young couples without children, and Village personnel is growing. (p. 65)

Even before I joined the Board, addressing the housing issue was one of my top priorities. When I first ran for Trustee, several years before I became mayor, I wrote the following in my submission to the League of Women Voters 2014 Voter Guide:

“Our greatest challenge is making sure that Croton-on-Hudson is a place that middle class families can afford to live. To achieve this goal requires...[e]nsuring a housing stock that can meet the needs of people from diverse backgrounds and different stages of life…I am a firm believer in affordable housing. In Westchester, and Croton-on-Hudson, housing is an acute need… [As a member of the Village Board], I would be a proud advocate for affordable housing for our community.”

Since 2018, the Board has enacted a number of policy changes to create both affordable and market rate housing opportunities. This extensive work is bearing fruit. With permitted projects like Maple Commons, our Village is beginning to return to our historic rate of housing growth: 

To be sure, housing is challenging everywhere but the shortage is particularly severe in our region. Further, the Village’s government has a unique role to play. As a home rule state, local governments in New York State have near total control over what is built (with important exceptions). 

Local governments are on the frontline of the housing crisis. We can be a part of the solution or a part of the problem. And by taking the lead, as we are doing, we can assure that the solutions we design fit our community.

Thankfully, we are not fighting this fight on our own. As of August 2024, 162 municipalities are now certified New York State Pro-Housing Communities (including the villages of Haverstraw, New Paltz, Port Chester, Sleepy Hollow and Nyack), and 336 have applied to become Pro-housing Communities (including the villages of Mamaroneck, Ossining and Port Chester). 

Because of our pro-housing certification, we have access to a pool of $650M in state funds. These funds include grant programs to support local infrastructure and promote business growth.

This voluntary, incentive-based approach is exactly what local governments, represented by the New York Conference of Mayors, have been calling for: 

“The lack of affordable and market-rate housing in New York is a daunting challenge that requires immediate attention from all levels of government…an effective affordable housing program needs a holistic approach – including financial incentives, regulatory adjustments, infrastructure improvements, and strategies to manage costs. NYCOM appreciates the State Legislature’s responsiveness to the concerns raised by municipal officials to keep local zoning local – but at the same time we understand the need to address the systemic problem of high housing costs in New York…Rest assured, our members are eager to continue to share their successful housing development strategies as well as the obstacles they have identified as impeding housing growth.

With the establishment of the Pro-Housing Communities program, the state government has heeded the call of local communities for a locally directed approach to the housing shortage.  The responsibility is now on local governments to act. 

Our approach on housing mirrors the think globally, act locally approach our village has embraced on other issues. Pro-Housing Communities is a very close analog to New York State’s Climate Smart and Clean Energy programs--which provide additional funds to communities like Croton that take prudent steps to promote renewable power and encourage energy conservation. Simply because a problem is a big one is not a reason to give up, but rather a reason to work cooperatively to address it.

Each new housing unit we add contributes to our collective progress in addressing this issue. Most importantly, though, it is a home for someone who needs a place to live in our village. Over time, new homes will become part of our community's fabric, just like Bari Manor, the Van Wyck apartments or any other home in our village. And we will remain a vibrant mixed-income community, strengthened and enriched through the decisions we make together for success in the years ahead.

   Brian Pugh is the mayor of Croton-on-Hudson

Comments policy: Obviously the issues discussed by Mayor Pugh above are controversial in the village. Nevertheless, our policy is that no personal attacks are allowed, and that comments should be polite and respectful to all concerned. Please focus on the issues and adhere to the rules of this publication. Thank you.

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