Onerous legislation, lengthy approvals processes, and an uninformed public are the biggest obstacles to creating more housing on Long Island.
That familiar refrain was the takeaway from a panel discussion Thursday at a Real Estate Institute event on the region’s housing crisis.
More than 200 real estate industry professionals packed the Heritage Club at Bethpage State Park for REI’s Spring Luncheon panel titled “Long Island Housing Development: Challenges and Opportunities.”
Moderated by Kevin Law, executive vice president and partner at Tritec Real Estate and chairman of Empire State Development (ESD), the panel included developer Anthony Bartone, managing partner of Terwilliger & Bartone Properties; Farmingdale Mayor Ralph Ekstrand; Brookhaven Supervisor Dan Panico; Cara Longworth, ESD regional director; and David Pennetta, executive managing director of Cushman & Wakefield Long Island.
Bartone, whose firm has built transit-oriented developments in Farmingdale, Lynbrook and Westbury, railed against legislative impediments like New York’s scaffold law, which he said raised insurance rates three times higher than anywhere else, the one-month limit on security deposits for apartments, prevailing wage mandates and the proposed Good Cause Eviction law, which would add protections for tenants, including capping annual rent increases to 3 percent.
“The challenges here are so deep it’s almost untenable,” said Bartone, who also serves as president of the Long Island Builders Institute. “You can’t come out with laws like these. I’m so tired of having unintended consequences.”
Read the full article in Long Island Business News.
