Warwick, Warehouses and Affordable Housing
As increased state requirements loom for affordable housing, discussions turn to property around giant warehouses, says Warwick Town Supervisor Mike Sweeton.
Six more affordable housing units are in the works for the Town of Warwick, with not many more anticipated, according to Warwick Town Supervisor Michael Sweeton. Two new subdivisions, one with 31 lots and the other with 35 lots recently received marketing plan approval from the town board for their affordable housing. Zoning requires that one affordable housing unit be included with every 10 new units
“It was our attempt to infuse affordability,” Sweeton said. “But so much of Warwick is preserved land that few new affordable housing units are expected. No new subdivisions are being proposed.”
Meanwhile, Governor Kathy Hochul tucked legislation into her budget proposal that would require 3% of housing units to be affordable housing. In Warwick, that would necessitate building 330 more affordable housing units in the next three years, Sweeton said.
“That’s an impossibility. We haven’t had 330 homes built in the last five to ten years. There’s not enough land for the mandate. It’s an ill-conceived plan,” he said. “We need affordable housing, but it should be driven from the bottom up, not the top down. Let’s work together to figure it out. How would the infrastructure work? You can’t put wells and septic on less than a half acre. Would we get funding from the state? Probably not. We don’t have affordable housing because taxes are high, and builders won’t build houses they can’t benefit from.”
Collaboration between communities to solve the problem would be more effective, he said. He recalled discussing the issue at a recent Orange County Planning Board meeting.
“Putting housing around huge warehouses started to be floated,” he said.
What about fumes and noise?
“It wouldn’t be added retroactively, but in future designs. Workers could live there,” he said, adding that he hopes the legislature will demand that the affordable housing measure be separated from the budget bill as is required by the state constitution.
Requests for comments from Orange County Planning Commissioner Alan Sorensen or other Planning Commission staff received no response by press time.
Meanwhile, three affordable units are planned for Wheeler Road Estates, the 31-lot subdivision planned for Wheeler Rd. and Dussenbury Dr. that had preliminary approval in 2005. Warwick Isle, located at Route 1 and Merritt Island Rd., with 35 lots, will offer another three affordable units. They are the only additional sources of affordable housing currently planned, Sweeton said.