'New Deal for Nassau' for business owners is on the table

This Long Island Business News article appears on its web site - LIBN.com.

Nassau focuses on being builder friendly

by Michael H. Samuels

Published: December 17th, 2008

For years, Long Island’s builders and contractors have complained about the blockade that is Nassau County government.

In good times, builders took the problems, such as delays in issuing permits, discrepancies in the application process and slow payments, in stride, knowing there would, eventually, be a big payday ahead. But now as the country sits in a recession, those same builders are begging for expediency. Perhaps they’ll get it.

The county Legislature has launched what it expects will be a series of meetings with contractors, builders, Chamber of Commerce officials and others to help make Nassau County more builder friendly. Those groups joined the Long Island Housing Partnership, the Nassau County Industrial Development Agency, the county economic development department, Hofstra University and the Long Island Association, as the county seeks to fast-track development. More meetings with workers and municipalities are scheduled.

Already, some business leaders have weighed in and told Nassau officials what they probably already knew: Delays are costly and zoning laws are cumbersome and often difficult to make sense of.

Mark Herbst, executive director of the Long Island Contractors Association, said companies he represents would be better off if county, town and village governments passed capital budgets when they are proposed in January. Often, capital budgets aren’t passed until March or later, leading to delays that affect contractors’ ability to bid on projects and increase planning costs.

Herbst added that government is slow to pay for work, which makes it less appetizing to work on public projects.

“Our suppliers demand to be paid in 30 to 60 days,” Herbst said. “They do not want an excuse that the town or county has not paid us.”

Michael Watt, executive vice president for the Long Island Builders’ Institute, said the new Nassau initiative shows political leaders are ready to put an end to the bureaucracy, which has led to delays in approving development and paying for work already done.

“We have to believe the Nassau leaders are sincere,” Watt said.

Watt said Nassau should speed up the permitting and application process for builders. He said agencies in Nassau, regardless of the municipality, should have a similar application process.

Watt added that Brookhaven and Islip have already streamlined the building application process.

“Builders need to plan their costs,” Watt said. “For instance, they estimate that they will need to borrow a certain amount of money and pay it back in six months. But when six months turns in to 18 months, you’re screwed.”

Many of these complaints are not new. But a booming real estate business made the mess more tolerable.

Lewis Yevoli, the former Oyster Bay supervisor who is now a consultant with the Nassau County Industrial Development Agency, said the county needs to spearhead an effort to get towns and villages to change their zoning laws to make it easier for builders to increase density and build affordable, work-force housing.

He said many of the density figures are arbitrary and can be easily raised.

But not everyone has grievances.

Jim Castellane, president of the Building and Construction Trades Council of Nassau and Suffolk counties, said he has a good working relationship with both counties.

He suggested Nassau look into implementing a policy similar to Huntington’s, which fast tracks permits for companies that use a state-approved apprenticeship program. He also said Nassau could hire a labor adviser similar to Suffolk’s. A Suffolk adviser acts as a liaison between the unions and the county.

Otherwise, Castellane said, builders and contractors are going to have to ride through a rough economy. There’s only so much government can do.

“Everybody is going to run into problems now,” Castellane said. “That’s expected with the way the economy is.”

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.