Rye Brook Mayor Responds to Federal Housing Monitor Report

Public Letter By Paul S. Rosenberg:

As you may recall, several years ago the prior County Executive and Board of Legislators entered into a
settlement with the Federal Government regarding affordable housing. Late last night, the Federal
Housing Monitor released an initial report titled “Monitor’s Huntington Analysis of Westchester County
Municipal Zoning”. In the report, the monitor claims that “Rye Brook’s zoning code, taken together with
census and housing distribution data, provides prima facie evidence of clustering in violation of
Huntington.” He has invited comments from the six municipalities named in the initial report. I’d like to
take a step back and address some of the facts with respect to this topic.

First of all, it should be noted that the Village of Rye Brook is not a party to the settlement between the
Federal Government and the County of Westchester. Prior to the settlement, the village already had
over 40 units of affordable housing.

However, since the county settlement was approved, Rye Brook has been very proactive to encourage
more affordable housing. As a community, we have:

· Provided a report that identified approximately 20 locations throughout the village where
additional affordable housing could potentially be located in Rye Brook.
· Adopted the vast majority of the recommended Model Ordinance that was determined to be
acceptable to the monitor. This includes requirements that many new site plans and subdivisions also
include affordable housing.
· Created a new Affordable Housing Floating Zone which allows affordable housing to be placed as
of right in any zoning district. This floating zone (enacted in Dec 2011) may address concerns suggested
in the Huntington analysis. The village received a planning award for this innovative zone, and has
already applied it in two locations and I suspect will be used many times in the future.
· Discussed affordable housing in our newly adopted Rye Brook Comprehensive Plan, which will
involve reviewing legislative items such as accessory apartments to encourage more affordable housing
in Rye Brook.

I also note that I am personally not aware of any formal application for affordable housing that has ever
been denied in Rye Brook.

Last year, the federal housing monitor issued a report indicating evidence that seven municipalities had
exclusionary zoning on the basis of socioeconomic status because of barriers they erected against
affordable housing development. The so-called “Category 3” municipalities were: Croton-on-Hudson,
Harrison, Lewisboro, Mamaroneck, Ossining, Pelham Manor, and Pound Ridge. After further discussion
with these municipalities, some of these communities have apparently come off this list. Rye Brook was
not named in that report as having exclusionary zoning. On the contrary, we were listed as a being a municipality where other factors provide a rebuttal to the presumption that our ordinances are
exclusionary.

In last night’s report, the Monitor states that “Rye Brook’s zoning code, taken together with census and
housing distribution data, provides evidence of clustering in violation of Huntington and (the R-2F
district) is an area which is clearly less desirable and could be considered stigmatizing”. Here, the
Monitor is implying that our zoning code purposefully clusters minorities in certain less-desirable parts
of the village. I wonder how the residents of this district feel about the monitor’s inflammatory
statements. The fact is that this is an area where housing happens to be more affordable, is close to
public transportation, and has the benefit of being adjacent to a shopping center which has made
substantial investments to making itself a vibrant center of our community.

Furthermore, examining Rye Brook’s zoning using the “Huntington Analysis” is a questionable approach,
given the huge disparities in size and population between the Town of Huntington, Long Island, and the
Village of Rye Brook. The Town of Huntington is 137.1 square miles. Rye Brook is 3.5 square
miles. Everywhere is local in Rye Brook. Huntington’s population (according to the 2010 census) is
203,264. Rye Brook’s population (also according to the 2010 census) is 9,347. Given the huge
differences in size and population, how can the Huntington analysis be reasonably applied to a small
village like Rye Brook?

That being said, Rye Brook has put together a task force to analyze and respond to last night’s monitor’s
report. We will continue to work collegially with the County Executive’s office the County Legislature,
and the federal monitor to eliminate any potential barriers to having affordable housing in Rye Brook.
In conclusion, we feel that we have been doing everything in our power to encourage affordable
housing in Rye Brook. We are proud of what we have accomplished so far, given the small size of our
village and population, and will continue to seek ways of promoting affordable housing in Rye Brook.

Photo: ryebrooktogether.org