Syracuse, N.Y. -- The lack of affordable housing in Onondaga County – a leading cause of poverty – is poised to get worse if local zoning rules don’t change before thousands of new residents come to the area in search of semiconductor jobs.
The reason? Zoning restrictions in most local municipalities discourage new housing that is not detached, single-family homes. That inhibits development of apartments and other more affordable housing, according to a report to be released Friday.
CNY Fair Housing, a nonprofit dedicated to housing issues, spent more than a year mapping the various zoning regulations enforced by 34 municipalities in the county. What they found, for the most part, was “exclusionary zoning’' that blocks housing options other than single-family homes, reinforcing poverty and racial segregation.
Developers who want to build duplexes, row houses, mobile homes or apartment buildings often must beg for special permission from local officials. That drags out the process, increases the cost and comes with the all-too-frequent likelihood of getting shouted down by the owners of neighboring properties.
Even without the population growth expected from Micron Technology’s planned chip fab in Clay, this is a problem, said Sally Santangelo, executive director of CNY Fair Housing. Already, one-quarter of tenants in the county spend more than half their income on rent.
Unless the zoning barriers to development are removed soon, it’s likely that the affordable housing crisis in Syracuse will grow, Santangelo said.
“If housing demand goes up, and the supply does not go up, then the prices go up,’’ Santangelo said. “If we don’t meet that demand, the price pressure is just going to keep getting pushed further and further down.’’
County Executive Ryan McMahon said he did not believe local zoning regulations were intended to be exclusionary, but he agreed that change must come soon. McMahon said county planners are working with towns, especially in the northern suburbs near the Micron site, to identify new “town centers’' where zoning will accommodate a mix of uses.
McMahon said the village of Baldwinsville, the hamlets of Bridgeport and Brewerton, and commercial areas like Great Northern Mall, are among the areas likely to see more urban-style development.
“When you develop new centers, you’re going to need different zoning to make that work. And you’re going to need an all-of-the-above housing strategy,’’ he said.
McMahon said suburban town officials are eager for the change. But he and many town leaders have chafed at proposed legislation from Gov. Kathy Hochul, which would let the state overrule municipal officials if they don’t develop new housing quickly enough.
The CNY Fair Housing report suggests that it will take a concerted effort to remove the roadblocks. Here are some highlights of the report, a draft of which was reviewed by syracuse.com.
- Of all the “urbanized” land zoned for residential development (excluding farmland and rural residential districts not meant to be served by municipal utilities), 74% is zoned for detached, single-family homes.
- Some 24% of the land requires a lot size of at least one acre per home.
- Only 3% of land is zoned to allow multifamily housing (buildings with 10 or more apartments) without special permission from the municipality. Outside the city of Syracuse, that shrinks to 1%.
- Only 10% of land is designated for development of what housing advocates call the “missing middle” – duplexes, row houses, mobile homes and small apartment houses.
The report says zoning restrictions have contributed to segregation in Onondaga County.
“Compared to white residents of Onondaga County, minority residents are twice as likely to rent their homes and almost twice as likely to live in missing middle or multifamily housing,’’ the report said. “Zoning restrictions that ban the construction of diverse housing types perpetuate the county’s entrenched patterns of segregation.”
Because developers often must seek zone changes or variances for multifamily developments, town boards can reject the projects for a wide variety of reasons, Santangelo said. In an interview, she pointed to recent projects that failed to gain approval from town boards as evidence of the problem.
In 2021, the town of Clay shot down a proposed mixed-use development at the 30-acre site of the former Hinerwadel’s Grove on West Taft Road. The project would have included a grocery, an auto parts store and a 64-unit townhouse complex. Town planners said the proposal was “too intensive” for the site and disruptive to the neighbors.
In December, the town of Cicero rejected a proposal to build 278 apartments and townhomes on a 35-acre site on Route 11, about 3 miles from the proposed Micron chip fab in Clay. CenterState CEO, the regional business development group, urged town officials to approve the project. But some 15 neighbors spoke out against it.
The town board rejected it. Among other findings, they said “the proposed development is too dense for the target area and neighborhood.”
McMahon said town boards typically reject projects only if they have shortcomings. In the case of the Cicero project, called Metro North, he believes the developer will return with a revised and improved plan for the site. McMahon said he would support the project if it includes other elements besides housing, including retail.
“I think the location is a perfect spot for a town center type development, but that’s not what was being proposed,’’ he said. “We support the decision not to move forward (with) that project, not because we don’t like what they’re proposing. We think they need to do more.”
Mary Thompson, executive officer of the Home Builders and Remodelers of CNY, said town officials in the past have often been inflexible when determining the minimum lot size for houses.
In Cicero, for example, the town last year required the Bragman Cos. to reduce the number of homes at its 64-acre site on Lakeshore Road from 115 to just 44. Town officials at the time rejected Bragman’s request for a variance out of concern over traffic and the “density” of the proposed development.
Thompson said it can take two to four years to get approval even for a single-family residential development. Those development costs typically add at least 25% to the cost of a new home, according to the National Association of Home Builders.
The challenge in changing zoning rules, Thompson said, is that local officials answer to the people who already live in their municipality, not to the people who might want to live there. Not many homebuyers today would insist on a one-acre lot, for example, but towns might be slow to relax that minimum requirement.
“That’s not something that people want anymore. But remember that the planning boards are up against the people who already live there,’’ she said.
For decades, zoning codes have evolved to keep out development that residents of the community view as undesirable, said Alex Lawson, housing policy coordinator at CNY Fair Housing. That has effectively kept poor people and people of color out of many communities, he said.
In some suburban areas, zoning has resulted in sterile, homogenous neighborhoods that lack the vitality of older, urban areas that evolved without so many rules. It also tends to direct housing developers outward to remoter areas, where it’s easiest to get approvals, contributing to sprawl, Lawson said.
To address the crisis in affordable housing, Central New York needs to reverse that trend and adopt more rational zoning rules, Santangelo said. Each municipality should strive to accommodate a wide mix of housing; to decrease the minimum size of building lots; and to encourage infill housing on vacant or under-utilized property.
It won’t be enough to make changes one project at a time, she said.
“We don’t have time,’’ Santangelo said. “That’s really what it comes down to.”
CNY Fair Housing will host a webinar at noon Friday to discuss the group’s report. Registration is open.
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