In a First, School and Town Talk Housing
The East Hampton School Board has taken a three-pronged stance on affordable housing within East Hampton Town: Those projects are necessary, but their locations and therefore their impact should be spread out among the school districts, and the payments given to the district in lieu of taxes — known as PILOTs — should reflect the actual cost of educating the children who live in that housing.
The board discussed these concerns during its Aug. 18 meeting.
Representatives of the school district then sat down on Aug. 19 with East Hampton Town’s director of housing, Tom Ruhle, to discuss the board’s opinions ahead of the town’s plan to build 12 more affordable housing units within the school district’s boundaries.
Both Mr. Ruhle and J.P. Foster, president of the East Hampton School Board, said their conversation was productive, informative, and forward-thinking.
“I’ve never actually met in a formal way with someone from the school district and the administration to discuss issues that are common to us,” Mr. Ruhle said. “They brought up the fact that the bulk of the affordable housing is in their district, while simultaneously Wainscott is in the process of fiercely opposing an affordable housing project. They also brought up the fact that they are the largest employer in town and they have a problem with staff retention.”
The East Hampton School District’s concern over affordable housing stems largely from the relatively small dollar amounts it receives from the town compared to the number of children who live in those developments. For example, according to the school board, 30 students live in the Accabonac Apartments, for which the district receives a flat $30,000 each year. Eight students live in the Springs-Fireplace Apartments, for which the district receives $15,000. According to the most recent New York State School Report Cards, East Hampton spends $32,418 each year to educate each student in the district.
“Some PILOTs were fixed when $30,000 was a lot more money than it is these days,” Mr. Ruhle said. “Twenty-five years from now, someone’s going to say, ‘What?’ ”
Mr. Foster said on Tuesday that “with the tax cap, every penny counts at thispoint . . . even if it’s a $5,000 difference.”
“It’s that critical,” he said. “We’re dealing with a budget. So is the town, and the town pays the PILOT. So you have to look at the source of the income. They don’t have a lot to give us and we know that’s what we’re up against.”
But East Hampton’s current project, called Manor House, differs from previous projects. It will have three buildings, each containing a one-bedroom apartment, two two-bedroom apartments, and a three-bedroom apartment that will be available for purchase by eligible potential homeowners at prices around $200,000. Its eventual occupants will pay direct taxes on the value of their houses, rather than the town making payments in lieu of taxes on the whole development. Manor House is awaiting approval from the Suffolk County Department of Health.
“We need rental housing and ownership housing,” Mr. Ruhle said. “We are looking in other places besides the usual suspects. We live in a place where if you own property this is a great place, and if you don’t it’s a really difficult place to live. People look at affordable housing as if it’s some evil monster from afar. It’s for the people you see working here every day who don’t own a house.”
Mr. Foster said the district wants to work with the town “to be fair” about the number of affordable housing units built within school boundaries.
“We want to see more affordable housing, but we want to see it spread out around the town,” Mr. Foster said. “We’re not trying to stop it. No one in East Hampton wants to stop it.”
The same might not be said in Wainscott. The Wainscott Common School District says a 49-unit development that has been proposed there could cripple the school, which is a two-room schoolhouse with a maximum capacity of about 25 students spanning kindergarten through third grade. Its superintendent, Stuart Rachlin, has previously said the number of children who could potentially live in that development would overwhelm the school’s resources.
According to Mr. Ruhle, the plan for a 49-unit affordable housing complex has been modified by St. Michael’s Housing Association, the group that is proposing the development, and will be presented during the town board’s meeting on Sept. 15. Yesterday Mr. Rachlin said in an email that he had not been informed of any changes pertaining to the affordable housing proposal.