Fantasy Land

Newly re-minted LIBI member Michael Dubb (http://www.beechwoodhomes.com/news-whoswho-mdubb-augsep-05.htm) spoke about a fantasy of his during a panel yesterday at Building Long Island (http://www.buildinglongisland.com/) magazine's annual "Cutting Through The Red Tape" breakfast symposium at the The Milleridge Cottage in Jericho.

He shared with the 200-strong audience that he has enough property to build 700 houses in the Town of Brookhaven but that he is holding off from doing so for the time being. He said his fantasy is that the Town of Brookhaven comes to him and says, "What can we do to get you to build those 700 homes?"

Given the financial hardships the Town is going through right now, as well as the region's well-documented shortage of affordable housing you would think Mr. Dubb's fantasy would be a no-brainer reality. But no, we live on Long Island where there is an unfortunate disconnect amongst our elected officials in that they do not understand the relationship between home construction and remodeling and a healthy economy. Instead of encouragement, our members get roadblocks and delays by way of onerous paperwork, expensive and inexplicable fees and seemingly endless placating of civic associations.

The elected officials on the panel - Nassau County Executive Tom Suozzi (http://www.nassaucountyny.gov/agencies/CountyExecutive/Biography.html), Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy (http://www.co.suffolk.ny.us/departments/CountyExec.aspx) and Town of Oyster Bay Supervisor John Venditto (http://www.oysterbaytown.com/) all talked a good game. Suozzi pushed his "Cool Downtowns" concept - and multi-residential dwellings in downtown areas near train stations are key to Long Island's future. Levy discussed his on-going efforts to bring fiscal sanity to Suffolk County - including his efforts to have light-duty officers run the Suffolk County Police Athletic League, a move that will save County taxpayers $400,000 according to the County Executive. And Venditto suggested that Oyster Bay is doing "quite well." Tell that to the LIBI member who has a significant amount of business stuck in the limbo of the building moratorium in Massapequa.

Oh well. LIBI will use this space to monitor the local municipalities and draw attention to situations and government policies that are detrimental to the building community and, by extenstion, the Long Island economy. Stay tuned.