NIMBYism or spot zoning? What the battle over Cold Spring Harbor Lab's dorm plan says about affordable housing on LI

Aybuke Alici had cleared a complex obstacle course in scientific study: She earned her PhD from Bogazici University in Turkey, having studied stem cells and immunology. After that, she was accepted into a coveted postdoctoral fellowship at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, with plans to research the effect of cancer progression on Western diets.

But she ran into a hurdle she hadn't trained for: finding affordable housing on Long Island.

“It’s an expensive area, and there are mostly houses; there are not many apartments,” Alici, 39, said in an interview with Newsday. “That part is a little bit hard: how to manage your life here on Long Island.”

With years of complaints in mind, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory unveiled plans to boost housing for its postdoctoral fellows. Earlier this year, the facility sought approvals to lodge up to 30 fellows at a mansion built in 1910 on the former Garver estate in Oyster Bay Cove. Soon after, objections streamed in from several neighbors of the 11.75-acre property on Sandy Hill Road. The village code classifies the road as one of four "scenic and historic byways" with a "natural beauty" that must be "preserved and protected."

Lawyers for the neighbors sued the village, some of its officials and the laboratory in March. The suit accused Oyster Bay Cove of zoning the site for the benefit of one property owner: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. Village officials have denied the charge.

The monthslong dispute over the laboratory's housing plan has put Long Island's larger housing shortage into sharp focus, according to affordable-housing advocates and researchers who study the issue.

The sparse rental options can lead some scientists to select cramped and even illegal living arrangements, laboratory officials said. 

The laboratory is nestled in a picturesque setting along the North Shore near the Nassau-Suffolk border, between Oyster Bay Cove and Cold Spring Harbor, where rental units are scarce.

In Oyster Bay Cove, 8.7% of overall housing units are rentals, according to 2023 U.S. Census estimates. In Cold Spring Harbor, the figure is 3.7%. The share is higher in Nassau County, where 18.9% of all units are rentals, the data shows. In Suffolk County, the figure is 18.8%.

In Nassau County, median rents rose from $2,093 in 2022 to $2,228 in 2023, the census data shows, Newsday previously reported.

Jacob Anbinder, a historian and postdoctoral fellow at Cornell University, has studied the origins of NIMBYism, the antidevelopment acronym that stands for "Not In My Backyard." He said employees in academic settings are "are increasingly unable to live in or near the universities where they're working." The mismatch between supply and demand "is really at the heart of this broader cost-of-living crisis that has become an issue that's central to our national politics," he said.

Some well-funded institutions are able to provide subsidized housing, he said, but many don't want to purchase land or properties to avoid pushback from local residents. Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory's approach, he said, is "unusually involved."

"It's rare to find postdoc programs that expressly offer subsidized housing," Anbinder said. "Oftentimes, universities don't want to get involved in local real estate."

'Sticker shock'

James Britz, executive vice president of the Long Island Housing Partnership, said the number of affordable rental units on Long Island is far below the demand for them. “There’s still a tremendous need,” Britz said in an interview. 

And those who come from outside New York, including postdoctoral students, face additional “sticker shock” at high rental prices, especially in areas on the North Shore such as Oyster Bay Cove and Cold Spring Harbor, he said.

Long Island research institutions have programs in place to help postdoctoral researchers secure housing.

Staff from Stony Brook University's Commuter Student Services & Off Campus Living can help postdoctoral students find rentals, Joan Behan-Duncan, a university spokeswoman, said in a statement.

The department recently launched a new off-campus housing website to improve the search process. The site has sections that allow prospective renters find roommates and landlords to post listings.

Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory offers dormitory-style arrangements, but institutions often don’t allow families to live in the dormitories as well. Researchers still need to find longer-term options.

The laboratory has six different locations where faculty or postdoctoral fellows are housed, including at the main campus, said Steve Monez, the laboratory's chief facilities officer. The other locations include Uplands Farm, a facility near the main campus; two four-bedroom homes in Huntington and Syosset; and two homes in Cold Spring Harbor that can house 10 people at a time. 

Long Island’s housing shortage makes it difficult to recruit researchers, Monez said.

“The reason is postdoctoral salaries are fixed, and they're fixed at a range that makes it very hard for a postdoctorate to live in this neighborhood,” Monez said in an interview. 

Pay for postdoctoral researchers starts at about $75,000 annually, according to a Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory stipend schedule. 

Legal battle underway

Laurel Kretzing, an attorney representing the Sandy Hill Road neighbors, sued the Village of Oyster Bay Cove, village officials and Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in March. The suit was filed in State Supreme Court in Nassau County in an effort to halt the project.

The neighbors accused the village of “spot zoning," which occurs when a municipality carves out special conditions for a single property that would make it contrast starkly with surrounding ones. 

Kretzing pointed to an August 2023 letter in which Andrew Levitt, a lawyer for the laboratory, asked Oyster Bay Cove's mayor for a change in the zoning law, court filings show. The laboratory had entered into a contract to purchase the property, but the sale was "contingent on" changing the village's zoning law so the laboratory could use it as "a residence facility," according to the letter, which was included in the court docket. 

In December 2023, the village adopted a new law to allow "postdoctoral fellows" to live in certain residences within the village, so long as the institution's main campus is within 4 miles of the residence hall. Kretzing said that move was "adopted at the specific behest and request" of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory.

The neighbors' lawsuit cites a case in which the Town of Gates, in upstate Monroe County, rezoned a property for use as a shopping center — specifically to benefit Wegmans, the supermarket chain. In that case, the court said zoning changes could "relate only to the real estate involved without regard to the person who owns or occupies it," Kretzing said in a court filing.

But lawyers for Oyster Bay Cove said there are no parallels to that case.

Christopher Wagner, the village's attorney, responded that the law wasn't designed to solely benefit the laboratory. Wagner noted three other properties could satisfy the code's requirement, not just the one Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory purchased. 

 

Concerns about traffic, partying

The zoning surrounding the property is for 2-acre residential lots, Kretzing noted in the complaint. 

Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory's proposed use is "much more intense" than how Harmony Heights, a school for girls with social and emotional needs, used the property. Harmony Heights operated there from 1981 until 2023.

"They had no cars; they could not come and go as they pleased. They did not go out at night," Kretzing wrote in a letter to the village's zoning board, court filings show.

The letter cites concerns about plans to operate a shuttle van on "an exceptionally narrow, winding road with limited visibility."

A traffic study conducted by VHB, a Hauppauge-based firm, said the dormitory plan would have only a "modest" impact on traffic. 

Aaron Machtay, a transportation project manager for VHB, said in the firm's traffic study that the vans "are not much larger than a normal full-sized passenger vehicle." He added "there is more than adequate space at both the northern and southern access points to accommodate these vehicles."

Gary Ain, a neighbor of the property, said in an affidavit the "privacy and tranquility of the neighborhood" is what helps keep property values high. 

Steven Ravins, another neighbor and one of the plaintiffs, said in an affidavit he is worried about parties breaking out on the property.

"As a former medical student myself, I can assure the court that being a serious scientist and enjoying parties and socializing with your friends at night are not mutually exclusive," Ravins said.

Kretzing wrote in a court filing that Sandy Hill Road was "an exceptionally beautiful road" that is also "exceptionally dangerous and difficult to drive on." She described it as a road where "residents jog, ride their bikes and even ride their horses ... which given the narrowness of the road and the fact there is no shoulder in places is very dangerous."

'We make it work for the job'

Mackenzie Callaway, 32, of Missouri, a postdoctoral fellow at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, said she decided to pursue a PhD in biomedical engineering at the University of Minnesota. Not long after, she began researching how different events in women’s lifetimes can affect their risk of developing breast cancer.

However, when searching for apartments on Long Island, she learned that an applicant had to make three times the rent in income, “which is not what a postdoc makes,” Callaway said.

In 2023, the laboratory conducted a survey of its postdoctoral fellows to gain more insight into the housing issue. The survey found that 80% of fellows viewed the process of finding housing a challenge. Callaway, who serves as chair of the laboratory’s Postdoctoral Liaison Committee, said about 30% of respondents said they live in an illegal apartment and are uncomfortable with the arrangement.

"A lot of people are living in basement apartments without windows, or they're living above someone's garage with heating that's not legal," Callaway said. “We make it work for the job because we’re here."

Those illegal living arrangements present the “sad state of affairs” for rental housing on Long Island, said Hunter Gross, vice president of Huntington Town Housing Coalition.

“I truly believe it’s a policy choice,” said Gross, who is also a housing policy associate for the Syosset-based ERASE Racism NY.

Charles Goulding, mayor of Oyster Bay Cove, said officials are "steadfast and uniform" in support of the project but were "taken back" when a group of residents initially resisted the plan. 

"Anytime you have someone that comes out so vehemently opposed to something, you have to question: Did I miss something? Why didn't I anticipate this?" Goulding said.