The Keys to Housing Action:
Policy Options That Every Westchester City, Town, and Village Can Take to Address the Housing Shortage
Westchester County remains in the midst of a severe housing shortage which threatens the health of our economy and the vibrancy of our communities. The lack of adequate housing is choking businesses and nonprofits of local talent and causing our communities to miss out on additional property taxes, state and federal aid, and other economic activity. The housing shortage is being felt most sharply by seniors, millennials, people of color, middle class families and others looking for affordable options, as well as those who serve the public interest such as teachers, police, fire personnel, and local government workers who can no longer afford to live where they work. This is truly an “all hands-on deck” moment.
But many cities, towns, and villages in Westchester are already taking action. They are finding ways of re-examining their planning and zoning, cutting through outdated and inefficient red tape, identifying good sites for adaptive reuse of existing development, and turning run-down or underutilized commercial sites into infill housing. At the same time, multiple communities have either passed ordinances allowing for accessory dwelling units or overlay zones to permit transit-oriented development.
This is a problem that can be solved – and there are many different ways to solve it!
The Welcome Home Westchester campaign is advancing a local action agenda that identifies several proven pro-housing policy reforms. We challenge each community to identify and make progress on those reforms that make the most sense for their city, town, or village.
Our governing ethos is not every community needs to do the same things, but every community should do something.
In 2025, we released the “5 in 2025” policy agenda. As the year concluded, we released the report Taking Stock of the Pro-Housing Policies We Need: A Municipal Housing Policy Scorecard, which studied the implementation of specific housing policy reforms for each city, town, and village in Westchester County and compared that progress to the “5 in 2025” agenda. These measures establish a crucial benchmark for the smart and sustainable growth required to meet our county’s housing needs.
For 2026, we have revised and clarified our list of housing reforms that we believe will make it easier to build the housing we need and lay a strong foundation for future housing growth.
Below are the policy standards that the Welcome Home Westchester campaign will use in evaluating the 2026 update to our Municipal Housing Policy Scorecards. We look forward to once again celebrating those communities who have made an effort to be part of the housing solution this year!
1. Revise Your Municipal Comprehensive Plan to Include Planning Around Housing.
A Comprehensive Plan is an important civic process and planning document that shapes a community’s future and growth for years to come. It is the culmination of a planning process that establishes the official land use policy of a community and presents goals and a vision for the future that guides decision-making. The Comprehensive Plan process will include a thorough analysis of current data showing land development trends and issues, community resources, and public needs for transportation, recreation, and housing.
To receive credit, a city, town, or village will need to have updated its comprehensive plan within the past 10 years and include specific references to the community’s housing goals, objectives and strategies, including analysis of housing existing conditions or an inventory of the needs and assets.
2. Create a Housing Action Plan with Specific, Achievable Goals.
Between the available data from the 2019 Westchester County Housing Needs Assessment and additional data from the 2020 Census, communities have all the information they need to develop a Housing Action Plan that is specific to local needs and considers unique conditions and characteristics. The purpose of a Housing Action Plan is to help to identify different levels and types of new housing that will need to be built, while providing guidance and direction on how to achieve those levels. The plan should have adequate public input and set out priorities for how that community intends to be part of the solution in addressing the housing shortage. Not every type of housing makes sense in every community, but there is a broad variety of ways to move forward – “missing middle” housing, duplexes, accessory dwelling units, townhouses, garden apartments, senior housing, transit-oriented development, downtown mixed-use sites that combine retail and housing, local rezonings to make it easier to convert commercial properties to housing or allow for faith-based organizations like churches, mosques, temples and synagogues to develop a portion of their land for affordable housing – such that every community can be part of the solution.
To receive credit, a city, town, or village needs to have undergone a public process resulting in a specific plan to increase its housing stock in the future. A housing action plan can include a housing needs assessment, market assessment, affordable housing goals, strategies and actions, and implementation tools.
3. Remove Barriers to Building the Housing We Need Through Zoning, Ordinance, or Property Tax Changes.
Even communities who recognize the need to build more housing can often find themselves straight-jacketed by outdated zoning, cumbersome requirements from another era, or property tax assessments that incentivize only high-cost, high-end housing while penalizing those who want to build the homes of all shapes, sizes, and price points our residents need. Minimum lot sizes, setbacks, height requirements, parking minimums, and regulations can make building small scale multifamily housing like duplexes, accessory dwelling units, or starter homes impractical or impossible. These barriers prevent gentle density housing to be produced even where it would blend in with the neighborhood. Similarly, infill and adaptive re-use housing – building where development has already happened rather than green space – often gets stymied in places where the zoning only allows for office or other commercial uses rather than mixed-use, mixed-income housing. Finally, many faith-based organizations like churches, mosques, temples and synagogues who wish to redevelop a portion of their land into affordable housing find local ordinances prohibitively restrictive.
To receive partial credit, a city, town, or village needs to have amended a local zoning law within the past 5 years to allow for more housing units to be developed in an area that was previously more restrictive. This can mean increasing the allowable density of housing and can be done through numerous zoning techniques. To receive full credit, a municipality should also have a regulation for the inclusion of affordable housing within new developments through an inclusionary zoning ordinance or mandatory affordable housing set-aside, and/or should have authorized the new property tax exemption “421-p,” which allows for a phased-in property tax exemption for newly constructed rental buildings where at least 25% of the apartments are set to be affordable to middle income families.
4. Create a fast-track environmental review for sustainable, energy-efficient housing and transit-oriented development.
The land use review and approval process can be complicated, time consuming, and expensive. Even modest, sustainable housing projects are often subjected to lengthy and unpredictable reviews under the State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQR). Whether through inefficiency or local intransigence, these reviews can take years. This is true even for projects which would have a clear net positive impact on the environment, such as infill housing, transit-oriented development, or projects utilizing advanced stormwater management, solar panels, geothermal or air source heat pumps, or other clean or green technologies. Adding time, red tape, and cost to the approval process is one of many factors that make housing so expensive to build in Westchester, creating further barriers to affordability.
We call on communities to create a Green Fast Track for housing that includes climate-friendly features that would guarantee an expedient timeframe for priority projects, provided the applicant furnishes material in a timely manner.
To receive credit, a city, town, or village needs to have stated policy for certain high-value types of housing to go to the “front of the line” for review and/or to set an expedited timeframe faster than what is required under the State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQR).
5. Promote Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs).
Many Westchester cities, towns, and villages have passed ordinances to allow for accessory dwelling units as a way to provide more affordable housing options while supplementing incomes to middle-class and senior homeowners. These can be garage conversions, backyard cottages, converted attics or basement apartments – any space on an existing lot that can be repurposed into a fully separate living place. With adequate regulations, ADUs are typically unnoticeable from the street, and they do not noticeably transform the neighborhood character of a single-family exclusive zone.
To receive credit, a city, town, or village needs to have done of the following options: enacted a new ADU ordinance within the past 10 years; revised an existing ADU ordinance to make it easier for homeowners and property owners to build ADUs within past 5 years; or authorized the new property tax exemption “421-P*2 to provide a 10-year financial incentive for middle-class or financially-constrained homeowners.
6. Promote Transit-Oriented Development (TODs).
Many Westchester communities have actively promoted transit-oriented development. Study after study shows that allowing for walkable, mixed-use, and multifamily housing close to public transit greatly assists us in reducing our carbon footprint and revitalizing our local downtown areas. TODs boost our local economy and are a potential game-changer for young people and families who now work in Westchester but have trouble finding housing in their price range. It leads to less dependence on cars, more use of public transit, more walkable and revitalized downtown centers, more educational opportunities for children, and provides a reliable source of funding and ridership to the Metro-North Railroad that so many Westchester residents rely on.
To receive credit, a city, town, or village should either have created a multifamily zoning district within walking distance from these stations, or have expedited the approval of a dense multifamily or mixed-use project within half a mile of a Metro-North station.
7. Promote an Understanding of the Housing Shortage Through Volunteer Land Use Board Member Training.
State law requires land use board members to undergo 4 hours of training each year on a topic of their choice. However, there is no set of suggested topics or “core curriculum” for new volunteers to follow. There is a wide variety of topics that would satisfy the requirements, including topics as diverse as using Robert’s Rules in a public hearing, wetlands topography, and freedom of information laws. However, there is no requirement for a land use board member to learn about the housing shortage as it is currently being felt in their local city, town, or village. More explicit direction from cities, towns, and villages is necessary to help new land use board members understand the housing shortage in Westchester, how we got here, and how their future decisions could help or hurt closing the housing gap.
To receive credit, a city, town, or village should have done one of the following within the last 3 years:
a.) sent at least 3 local leaders to participate in the Affordable Housing Land Use Leadership Alliance Training Program hosted by the Land Use Law Center;
b.) had a majority of their current local electeds attend the annual Housing 101 for Newly-Elected Officials hosted by the Welcome Home Westchester campaign;
c.) sent at least 3 leaders to attend another regional, state, or non-profit training on the topic of affordable housing policy; or
d.) released a policy document establishing a required or recommended training for newly-appointed land use board members to ensure they have an understanding of the municipal profile for their city, town, or village, as outlined in the 2019 Westchester County Housing Needs Assessment, including which of their neighbors struggle with housing affordability, the history of single-family exclusionary zoning and its effects on residential segregation, housing affordability, or housing production.
8. Become a Pro-Housing Community
In 2023, the state established the Pro-Housing Communities Program to reward cities, towns, and villages who have chosen to be part of the solution to the housing shortage by committing to grow their housing stock by 1% per year. Communities that show progress will receive special consideration for important state grant programs like the Downtown Revitalization Initiative, Mid-Hudson Momentum Fund, and others. They can also apply to receive infrastructure funding to support planning, stormwater impacts, water, traffic mitigation, school impacts or other projects to their housing growth and improve the lives of existing residents.
To receive credit, a city, town or village should have either been certified by New York State as a Pro-Housing Community or submitted a letter of intent to join the program.