Affordable Housing Is Coming

A housing complex planned for a five-acre property on Montauk Highway in Amagansett is expected to provide affordable living space for community members of mixed income — an alternative for “hardworking people who just can’t quite get comfortable in the open market,” according to Katherine Casey, the executive director of the East Hampton Housing Authority, which will buy the land and build the development.

The project is still being designed, said Ms. Casey, but it will serve low to moderate-income residents of all ages. The number of units is yet to be determined, but they will be of various sizes, with separate access to individual residences. Each will include an outdoor patio or other private space. The majority of the units will be handicapped-accessible, she said.

The property is owned by Putnam Bridge, the Connecticut company that had sought to build a large luxury senior citizens housing development on adjacent acreage. There was an outcry from the community, and in the end, East Hampton Town used its community preservation fund to buy the bulk of the farmland property.

The five acres in question, which are zoned for affordable housing, were excluded from the purchase, with an eye toward their eventual use as a housing site. They lie between the eastern edge of the I.G.A. shopping center and V&V Auto.

The buildings will be designed to meet “passive house” energy-efficiency standards by Anthony J. Musso, a Cold Spring Harbor architect who specializes in green building, to “take little energy to heat or cool,” Ms. Casey said.  A three-year design and construction period is expected, she said. Grants will be sought from various agencies, including the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority.

Monthly rents will be set at “fair-market rates,” according to Ms. Casey, pegged to a federal Office of Housing and Urban Development schedule, so that the project can be self-sustaining, though tenants may qualify for individual rent subsidy programs, and no tenant will pay more than approximately 30 percent of their income in rent. The project is aimed at people with incomes ranging from 30 to 90 percent of the median income in the area, as set by H.U.D. Those figures vary, but this year range from $26,200 for a two-person household, at the low end, to a $63,750 annual income for two at the top of the scale.

While tenants will pay their own electric bills, Ms. Casey said the plans call for a photovoltaic system to generate solar power, which will bring those costs “as low as possible.”

Applications from potential tenants will be taken about a year before the anticipated completion date, she said. There is no waiting list as yet.

The housing authority will issue a $4 million bond to buy the land and for initial costs. Last Thursday, the town board voted unanimously to guarantee the note.

“The town has been very supportive,” said Ms. Casey. She has been working with the Planning Department, and when the proposed design and construction details are ready and the Housing Authority submits an application for site plan approval, the proposal will be submitted to the town planning board.

 Beyond the initial $4 million bond, the Housing Authority will seek federal, state, and county funding, including tax credits, to cover the remaining construction costs, for which an estimate has not been provided. 

Ms. Casey, who has been head of the Housing Authority for several years and has been working on the Amagansett project for much of that time, said Monday that she is “very excited” to see it moving ahead. An analysis by consultants last year, which reviewed factors such as existing housing, housing needs, community services, demographics, and the potential impact of new housing on the Amagansett School District, including its capacity to absorb new students, supported the development, she said.

The housing project will be “very forward-thinking, very sustainable,” she said. “A livable, walkable community, transit-oriented.”  Apartments will be of a design appropriate for older adults as well as for families with children, allowing a “transgenerational” community that gives older residents the opportunity to “age in place.” There will be a central green, a play area, and a community room with a public display monitoring the green buildings’ infrastructure systems, providing an opportunity for education in sustainable building design and operation. “Rain gardens” will collect rainwater and manage runoff.

Ms. Casey hopes the development will serve as a beacon for future housing projects. “I’m very much looking forward,” she said, “in the hopes that, aesthetically and in terms of green technology and community character, and serving the community at large — that it will make it hard for anybody to oppose anything like this in the future. They’ll say, ‘They did that right.’ ”