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Specht Stands Apart From Rockland’s Other Town Supervisors: Ramapo Is One of the Five Rockland County Towns To Become a Certified Pro-Housing Community
By Tina Traster
In 2005, the Town of Ramapo purchased a former movie theater at 62 North Main Street in Spring Valley for $637,500. The building, known as the Spring Valley Cultural Arts Center, has been used for years by the NAACP as its Rockland headquarters.
“Historically, governments are reactive,” said Specht. “We are trying to be proactive.”
By all accounts, the town-owned property is underutilized. But now the town is seeking Empire State Development grants to transform the center into a mixed-use athletic center with low to moderate-income housing units.
What’s interesting to note is the vision to create affordable housing – a direly-needed addition to the housing mix in Ramapo and in every town and village in Rockland County.
“The building we own is Spring Valley has a limited use and so we’d like to build on it, renovate the building, create community space for nonprofits and convert a part of the building to 30 to 40 residential units,” said Town Supervisor Michael Specht. “The county has a need to establish more affordable housing.”
Specht puts his money where his mouth is: In May, the town applied to Empire State Development for financial assistance under the Restore NY Communities Initiative.
What sets Specht apart from many is that rather than simply saying the county needs affordable housing, he’s working on it.
The New York State Pro-Housing Community Program is Governor Hochul’s “carrot” after years of using a “stick” approach to impose housing mandates on suburban communities that have been reluctant to expand housing options in their municipalities.
Ramapo is the only Rockland town that is a Certified Pro-Housing Community, a New York State program that has up to $650 million in state grants for communities that are actively working on expanding housing options, including affordable housing projects. The Village of Haverstraw, Nyack and Kaser have also applied to participate in the program and according to the Homes & Community Renewal website have issued letters of intent to become certified.
RCBJ sat down with Specht to talk about affordable housing in in effort to understand why he stands apart from other public officials who constantly talk about an affordable housing crisis in their municipalities but either do little or in some cases obstruct efforts.
“We know there’s a tremendous need said Specht,” citing a 20 percent growth in population in his town since 2020, the latest census. “We need a variety of housing, smaller apartments for families and seniors.”
The town supervisor said housing prices have risen, “which is great news if you’re ready to retire and want to go elsewhere, but it’s terrible if you want to stay or need to get started, and you’re priced out of a single-family house.”
Specht views the grant program as an opportunity.
“I really appreciate (Gov. Kathy Hochul’s) carrot instead of the stick incentive,” he said, adding that there are a host of grants for housing as well as revitalization and infrastructure so long as a community commits to creating affordable housing.
In its acceptance letter to the program, Ruthanne Visnauskas, commissioner of Homes and Community Renewal for the Division of Housing and Community Renewal writes: “The housing shortage that faces New Yorkers affects residents of all ages and income levels, and the urgent need to take action to address the issue is only growing.”
The commissioner further says New York State rents have risen 40 to 60 percent since 2015 and home prices have risen 50 to 80 percent in the same time period.
“More than half of New York renters are rent-burdened,” adding that they pay more than 30 percent of their income on rent – the second-highest rate in the nation.
Asked why Ramapo has pulled the trigger when many communities acknowledge housing shortages but fail to act, Specht said the town’s updated Comprehensive Plan shows an affordability crisis. That said, at least four projects winding through the planning process lack any affordable housing component, including the approved Decatur Avenue project.
“We thought this is the time to do this; we can’t hide our heads in the sand,” he said. The Supervisor believes participating in the program will have added benefits for funds to offset upgrades to sidewalks, recreational facilities, and infrastructure.
The town has hired Jaclyn Hakes of M.J. Engineering & Land Survey to assess housing demand.
“The firm is putting together a survey that will go out to town residents, hopefully in August, that will focus on income and the need for different types of housing,” said Specht. “The survey will look at rent to confirm what percentage of the population is rent burdened, and at home purchase prices.”
In Rockland County, the median single-family home price in June 2024 stood at $720,000, a 7.9% increase from the $667,500 median recorded a year earlier.
Fair market rents in Rockland County increased from $1,831 in 2019 to $2,752 in 2024, an increase of over 50%, or 23% in inflation adjusted dollars, according to a recent report from Pattern for Progress report titled, “Out of Reach.”
Of the nine Hudson Valley counties studied in the report, Rockland County had the highest two-bedroom fair market rent, tied with Putman County — $400 per month more than Westchester County.
Lack of affordable housing countywide has led to a proliferation of single-family homes being converted to boarding houses. In addition, employers experience difficulty finding people to hire for the service and healthcare industries because people cannot afford to live here.
“It’s true that landlords are converting properties illegally,” said Specht. “We discover houses being used as rooming houses, over-occupied. The number of complaints has increased in recent years. We do crack down, but we have to address the root cause.”
Specht says trying to bring slum landlords into compliance is difficult, a bit like playing Whack-A-Mole because building a case is slow and the judicial process is time-consuming.
But Specht also points to what he hears anecdotally to support the decision to become a Pro-Housing Community.
“The biggest shortage we have is two-bedroom apartments for young families,” he said, adding the town is addressing the issue with the Small Apartment Incentive Law, which encourages more units or greater density in R-15C zones. There are at least a handful of eligible projects before the planning board that would allow for greater density.
Town lawyers and planners are working on a draft of the Small Apartment Incentive Law — a local law that would allow a bonus to density/unit count if the builder provides smaller units in the same floor area ratio (FAR) and building size. Currently, there is no incentive for a builder to build smaller units, as our zoning laws cap density based on unit count regardless of the size of the units. Smaller units would allow more apartments with the same FAR. “It is currently a work in progress,” says Specht.
“Historically, governments are reactive,” said Specht. “We are trying to be proactive. We think of ourselves as a semi-rural community, but we’ve grown beyond that. Ramapo and throughout the county, there is opposition to any project that changes that ideal but the outcome are costly and time-consuming lawsuits.”
Ramapo is working with the Housing Action Council of Westchester, a nonprofit town officials met at Rockland County’s 2023 Housing Forum.
“We want to have affordable projects on town-owned property,” said Specht, such as Spring Valley’s Cultural Arts Center.
“We have at least one other site, a fairly substantial site,” he said, without being specific when asked to clarify.
Specht, who’s been in office seven years, concedes affordable housing must be tackled.
“If we do nothing, that’s controversial too,” he said. “I’m glad we’re embarking on this program.”
To join the Pro-Housing Communities Program, villages and town must take a series of steps starting with a Letter of Intent to join, sharing of extensive housing and zoning data with the state, and adoption of a model resolution that requires the municipality to take affirmative steps to remedy the negative effects of a housing shortage by:
- Streamlining permitting for multifamily housing, affordable housing, accessible housing, accessory dwelling units, and supportive housing.
- Adopting policies that affirmatively further fair housing.
- Incorporating regional housing needs into planning decisions.
- Increasing development capacity for residential uses.
- Enacting policies that encourage a broad range of housing development, including multifamily housing, affordable housing, accessible housing, accessory dwelling units, and supportive housing.
Specht appears resolute in his decision.
“I’m proud we’ve made this commitment,” he said. “I can’t speak for others but it’s the right thing to do. Not participating is really the same as leaving money on the table. But I guess there will be a larger pot for those of us that try to access it.”
