The Village of Mineola and the Town of North Hempstead were among six Long Island municipalities that didn’t properly enforce an affordable housing law, a state audit found.
The report, which was released by state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli’s office on Jan. 8, says both the village and town approved plans for new housing developments without requiring at least 10 percent of the units within them to be sold at affordable rates, as the Long Island Workforce Housing Act provides.
The projects — one in Mineola and one in Port Washington under the town’s purview — were among 29 developments approved between 2009 and 2014 the audit reviewed for compliance with the 2008 state law.
If a new building exceeds the maximum population density allowed in zoning codes, the law requires developers to set at least 10 percent of the units at “workforce” rates for people with an income at or below 130 percent of the county’s median.
In written responses to the audit, town and village officials said they’ve amended local laws to align with the Workforce Housing Act, and have asked affected developers for plans to comply with the law.
In Mineola’s response, Village Attorney John Gibbons said the state could have provided better guidance for how to enforce the law.
When North Hempstead’s Town Board approved final plans in 2012 for a 32-unit condominium development at 433 Main St. in Port Washington, it didn’t require three of those units to be set at workforce rates.
Mineola similarly didn’t require the developers of a 28-unit project at 210 Old Country Road to set aside three units.
The Workforce Housing Act says developers can put the required number of units in a separate building, or pay the relevant municipality a fee instead.
But neither alternative was used in either case, the audit found.
Town spokeswoman Carole Trottere said the town “appreciate(s)” the audit and has “revised our procedures to ensure that we are in compliance with this important law.”
The Town Board passed an amendment to its rules of procedure Nov. 17 to explicitly require all applications for developments with five or more units show compliance with the Workforce Housing Act.
Mineola’s Village Board has also added a subsection to its code governing its development incentive bonus to explicitly mention compliance with the Workforce Housing Act.
In the village’s written response to the audit, Gibbons said most municipalities don’t have a specific department or staff to monitor compliance with state laws “imposing administrative and enforcement obligations upon a local government.”
“(I)t would be very helpful if guidelines for implementation and ongoing compliance are provided,” Gibbons wrote.
Two of Mineola’s commuter apartment buildings at 250 Old Country Road and 199 Second St., managed by New Hyde Park-based Lalezarian Developers, were included in the audit.
Lalezarian has set aside the required number of workforce-rate units in each building — 32 for the former and 27 for the latter.
In his response, Gibbons noted the Village Board in 2008 required Mill Creek Residential Trust to create 36 affordable units for its Modera Mineola building at 140 Old Country Road. The national developer put them in Hudson House, the senior-living apartment building at 104 Front St.
Mineola has set aside as affordable 95 of the 917 housing units it’s approved in recent years, Gibbons’ response says.
