Counties say creation of housing will drive economic development

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Within county governments across New York State, economic development specialists spend countless hours working to bring businesses to their region.

Facilitating the arrival of a new enterprise, or providing incentives that enable a manufacturer to expand an existing entity, bolsters economic growth and strengthens community investment. Job creation is at the forefront of every project.

But in order to build a new factory or add product lines or services, companies need to know they’ll be able to fill jobs.

“Our employers are saying, ‘We want to build this factory, we want to expand,’ ” said Ryan Davis, economic development director for Ontario County.

Those same employers then ask: Is there a place for those workers to live?

Right now, that answer quite often is maybe — or no.

“The big roof employers can’t find workers,” Davis said.

Which is why Ontario County and Genesee County each have created new jobs that focus on housing expansion. Ontario County is in the process of hiring a manager of housing strategy and development. Genesee County is advertising for a housing development officer.

Once those positions are filled, the new hires will oversee efforts in their respective counties to find ways to build homes and apartments.

“We need a point person to oversee housing,” said Matt Landers, Genesee County manager. “We hear stories about stores and businesses that open and their workers end up living outside the county. It’s amazing how many people can’t live here because we don’t have the housing stock.”

Creating administrative positions dedicated to housing is a new concept within the state. Some might say it’s long overdue, especially since counties have for years believed so strongly in the value provided by their economic development teams.

“That 150-unit housing community will be even more impactful than what a commercial developer can provide,” Davis said.

Said Landers: “We have shell-ready business parks, so I want to work with towns and villages that are forward-thinking and help them get plots ready for housing. Towns and villages have limited staffs and limited expertise. Our housing development officer will have a unique skillset and be able to help them.”

While Ontario and Genesee will have a person dedicated to housing, the lack of homes and apartments is hardly unique to those counties. In Monroe County, the number of available houses has declined 52 percent since 2019, while construction of new apartments isn’t close to meeting demand.

That’s one reason the county’s economic development vehicle, the County of Monroe Industrial Development Agency (COMIDA), will provide tax incentives to housing projects of all types and sizes, not just those that create affordable units.

Still, because demand will continue to increase, not wane, more outside-the-box thinking will be necessary, said Mark Siwiec, CEO of Elysian Homes by Mark Siwiec and Associates.

He said easing what many consider to be a housing crisis will require shifts in policy, modernizing building codes, streamlining the permitting process, embracing modular housing and tying state and federal funding to zoning reform that allows greater density.

Those ideas very likely will be considered by the new housing administrators in Ontario and Genesee counties, because leaders there know the status quo isn’t working.

Davis said Ontario County’s manager of housing strategy will be “dedicated to helping our municipalities prepare for, and get involved with, housing initiatives.

“We’re not going to any municipality saying, ‘You must do this.’ We don’t mind if somebody says no.”

He’s guessing most will say yes.

“Our municipalities have embraced a pro-housing attitude,” Davis said.

In fact, he said, more than 25 percent of the state-recognized pro housing communities in the Finger Lakes Region are located in Ontario County, including greater Canandaigua and both the village and town of Phelps.

Village of Phelps Mayor Jim Cheney said his municipality is “being proactive with developers and builders.” And in East Bloomfield, Davis said, attitude is: “We’re going to have more houses to sell because we’re going to build more.”

But even within communities that want more housing, builders often face an obstacle course of regulatory hurdles and/or neighbor pushback.

That’s why communication between county officials, municipalities, developers and residents is so important, according to Davis and Landers.

“You can’t ask municipalities to roll over to developers, but it’s got to be less adversarial,” Davis said.

Landers said the ideal candidate for the Genesee County job will not only possess the necessary aptitude and familiarity with governmental procedures, but be able to communicate and mediate.

“The mind of lawyer and the communication skills of a Realtor,” he said.

That’s because time is of the essence.

The county has done two housing studies in the past eight years. “Both pointed to us needing housing at all price points; affordable, market rate, senior,” Landers said. “We need all of it.”

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