Yorktown Community Housing Board recommends reinstating set-aside law

Yorktown faces a shortage of affordable housing... which impacts the general welfare of the town and its residents.”

—Community Housing Board Chair Sarah Wilson

A set-aside law for affordable housing in new developments may be returning to the books in Yorktown after members of the Community Housing Board made a case for it at the Town Board’s April 14 meeting.

CHB Chair Sarah Wilson, along with other members of the volunteer body, appeared to present the case for reinstating the measure, which they argued is especially necessary given rising housing costs that are pricing many people out of the market.

According to real estate organizations, the median price for a home in Yorktown as of April 17 is in the mid-$600,000s, with some estimates as high as $700,000. According to Zillow, median rent starts above $2,300 a month for one-bedroom units and up to $5,000 a month for three bedrooms.

If adopted, the set-aside would revive a policy that was last in effect during the Obama administration.

“Yorktown had an affordable housing set-aside law on the books between December 2011 and November 2016,” Wilson told Yorktown News after the meeting. “This simply brings that requirement back into our Town Code.”

Some members of the Town Board expressed concern but voted to have Town Clerk Diana Quast solicit public comment and gather input from various town boards and committees, with a public hearing likely to take place in May or June.

Wilson spoke with Yorktown News to explain how the set-aside law would work and make the case for why it would help address what many believe is an affordable housing crisis.

The interview has been edited for clarity.

“Affordable housing” can mean different things to different people. How is it defined for the set-aside law? The term “affordable housing” is very misunderstood. This is not low-income housing.

The purchase price of an affordable ownership unit or the monthly rental for an affordable rental unit is prescribed in Yorktown’s Town Code 300-39 Affordable Housing, and is calculated based on factors such as unit size, household size, and percentage of area median income (AMI) for Westchester County.

For an ownership unit, the maximum initial for-sale price is set such that monthly housing costs shall be affordable to a household earning 80 percent or less of the area median income (AMI).

Rental units are designed to be affordable for households earning 60 percent or less of the area median income (AMI).

What does a set-aside law do? An affordable housing set‑aside law is a local requirement that requires new residential developments to include a certain percentage of homes that are priced below market rate for moderate‑income households. The basic idea is simple: when developers build, they must also contribute to the community’s affordable housing stock.

Set‑aside policies are a common tool in zoning, designed to:

• Increase the supply of affordable housing without relying on public funding

• Ensure mixed‑income neighborhoods

• Tie private development to public goals, especially in high‑cost areas

What is currently required under the law? There is no requirement under current Town code for developers to provide any affordable units in their developments. Almost all new developments are high-priced, “luxury” housing.

Yorktown hasn’t had a set-aside law in place since 2016—what are you proposing now? Essentially, we are proposing a reinstatement of the prior affordable housing set-aside requirement (Chapter 102), which would apply to new residential developments of ten units or more to ensure that such developments have ten percent of their units as affordable to address housing needs.

What need has the Community Housing Board identified? The town’s Comprehensive Plan supports the creation of affordable housing to increase housing diversity.  Yorktown faces a shortage of affordable housing due to the high cost of housing which impacts the general welfare of the Town and its residents, the municipal and school district workforce, first responders, and other essential workers.  The social and economic diversity of the Town is dependent upon a reasonable supply of affordable housing. 

Affordability is broadly defined as a household paying no more than 30 percent of monthly gross income towards housing costs.  Asset Limited Income Constrained Employed (“ALICE”) households are living paycheck-to-paycheck or in poverty.  March 2026 United Way data illustrate that more than 25 percent of households in Yorktown are below the ALICE threshold—so there is clearly a need for moderately priced housing.

What are the potential impacts of adding a set-aside law to the town code? Once enacted, Yorktown will be aligned with the set-aside provisions already in place in most of our neighboring communities. Currently we are an outlier by not requiring any affordable units. Under the proposed law, each new proposed residential development of 10 or more units would make 10 percent of those units affordable.

For reference, if this law had been in place and applied to new developments approved over the past few years, 45 affordable units would have been created.

• AMS Yorktown’s 180 dwelling units would have yielded 18 affordable age-restricted units in Jefferson Valley.

• Underhill Farms’ 148 dwelling units would have yielded 14 affordable condominium or apartment units in Yorktown Heights.

• AMS Yorktown’s 180 dwelling units would have yielded 18 affordable age-restricted units in Jefferson Valley.

• Underhill Farms’ 148 dwelling units would have yielded 14 affordable condominium or apartment units in Yorktown Heights.

• Toll Brothers’ 118-unit active-senior development would have yielded 11 affordable age-restricted units on Catherine Street in Crompond.

• Hallocks Square’s 23 condominium units would have yielded 2 affordable condominium units in Yorktown Heights.

What are some of the arguments against proposed law? Some Town Board members have expressed the view that an affordable housing set-aside requirement places a burden on the developers. They state they are philosophically opposed to mandates, although the Town mandates other requirements, such as sidewalks, traffic improvements, payment of recreation fees, etc. for the public benefit. The Housing Board position is that affordable housing provides an equally important public benefit.