Oyster Bay Town Supervisor Joseph Saladino and members of the Town Board joined with other town, village and county officials from both Nassau and Suffolk counties to denounce the Governor’s latest plans to eliminate single-family home neighborhoods across Long Island. The plan would create high-density housing zones around every Long Island Rail Road station and allow for apartments to flood single-family home neighborhoods throughout the Town of Oyster Bay. This means that thousands of new apartments, people and cars could flood local neighborhoods and residential blocks.
“We must save our suburbs from this ill-conceived housing plan as it would overcrowd classrooms, greatly increase traffic and cars parked on our streets, strain emergency services and threaten the environment,” said Supervisor Saladino. “While some Albany leaders want to blame the lack of affordable housing for the mass migration leaving our State, we all know the real reason people are fleeing New York is crushing taxes, rising crime and government overreach which threatens individual rights.”
The Governor’s high-density housing proposal would:
- INCREASE property taxes significantly to fund more students and services demanded by a larger population
- OVERCROWD classrooms and school districts with hundreds, if not thousands, of new students.
- STRAIN police and emergency services while increasing crime
- DESTROY our environment and INCREASE the carbon footprint
- SILENCE your voice over development projects, eliminate the public hearing process, and allow an unaccountable, bureaucratic board located hundreds of miles away in Albany to make decisions over what belongs in your neighborhood
At the press conference, every member of the Oyster Bay Town Board – together with Mayors and Trustees from villages throughout Long Island – opposed this plan. County Legislators, Hempstead and North Hempstead officials and the Mayor of Glen Cove also oppose this plan as it destroys our quality of life while stripping towns and villages of their ability to control local zoning. In fact, the Newsday Editorial Board wrote, “We are under siege only by those making irrational demands to change suburban life. She [Governor] should instead work with Long Island leaders to find solutions to the housing crisis that will help the region, without doing unintended harm.”
Residents can voice their opposition to the Governor’s Housing Plan and Save our Suburbs by signing a petition at www.OysterBayTown.com/SOS. This petition will automatically send letters to elected officials in Albany.