Staten Islanders know how badly things can go when big government bureaucrats start meddling in local land use laws.
After decades of unmitigated overdevelopment, I advanced groundbreaking rezoning laws during my time in the City Council that finally got out of control overdevelopment under control. The result has been more sensible development that addresses the particular realities within each local community.
Now, there is an effort underway in Albany to ignore local zoning laws, effectively prohibit single family homes, and even eliminate rules that ensure that a certain number of parking spaces are available for every home built.
These changes, if enacted, would bring about parking bedlam on already overcrowded streets and would reignite the overdevelopment nightmare of years past. I am opposed to these ill conceived proposals.
STATEN ISALND, N.Y. — Gov. Kathy Hochul walked back her budget proposal to expand accessory dwelling units (ADUs) around the state Thursday night, but a little more than 12 hours later, locals took to a Westerleigh corner to continue the push against changes they say would modify neighborhoods forever. Hochul announced around 8 p.m. that her proposal for ADUs, also known as mother-daughter or in-law apartments, would no longer be part of this year’s budget deal, after receiving pushback from most of the state’s Republicans and some members of her own party representing areas with a large proportion of single-family homes.