Suffolk needs all kinds of housing

In Ronkonkoma, the complex of apartments, restaurants and office space at Station Yards is thriving. In Wyandanch, developers are planning duplex-style rental units, with one and two bedrooms, on what is now a wooded lot. And in East Northport, the long-awaited 146-unit Matinecock Court officially opened this month.

It took 48 years for Matinecock to reach its ribbon cutting, and the housing battles continue across Suffolk County.

The county needs a wide variety of new housing, from single-family ranches to apartment complexes, from townhomes to newer styles, from prefab homes on small lots to business-sponsored workforce housing. Suffolk can and should build it all.

The demand is there, as former Long Islanders want to come back and young adults living with their parents want to stay nearby, in a place of their own. The land is there, especially if rundown strip malls and other non-productive commercial spaces can be converted to residential. But the political leadership is not aligned.

Anthony Piccirillo, the presiding officer of the Suffolk County Legislature, takes a narrow approach to new housing, claiming to know what Long Islanders want. 

"They want yards. They want single-family homes," he said in a Newsday news story.

Yes, many Long Islanders want single-family homes with yards. And that housing exists for those who can afford it. But there are thousands of residents, including young adults, seniors and families, who want and need something different. If Piccirillo's myopic view takes hold, the county's economy will suffer, as revenues stall, the tax base shrinks and school enrollments continue to decline. 

His intransigence has become a potential impediment to development in Ronkonkoma, Sayville and elsewhere, as he has removed committed state infrastructure funds from the capital budget, and his positions have rippled through the legislative majority and particularly through the Town of Islip, where Piccirillo wields political power.

That creates rocky terrain for Suffolk County Executive Edward P. Romaine, who has taken an appropriately more nuanced stance, promising to "support housing" and work with local communities. Romaine's acceptance of many housing types and other development is welcome. 

This debate has become too simplified, where critics paint in broad strokes, rather than thoughtfully considering what can work community by community. There's a different way forward, where the gamesmanship ends. Romaine, Piccirillo and other officials should take a proposal-by-proposal approach. There are places where single-family homes with yards belong, and other locations where apartments, townhomes or duplexes make more sense. The county would benefit from leaders who are willing to listen to all of their constituents and meet all of their needs.

Suffolk needs housing — all types of it. And the county has large tracts of land ripe for development — from the southern half of the Ronkonkoma Hub, where a request for proposals (albeit without housing) now awaits bidders, to the former Pilgrim Psychiatric Center in Brentwood, where Heartland Town Square could someday rise. Now it just needs leaders with backbones, who are open-minded and willing to do whatever is necessary to clear the way for the housing Suffolk wants.