Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Newsday online newspaper, special taxes and assessment on specific Townships, Suffolk County, open space preservation, new construction, township residents
1) The way LI works is home rule...basically, everything is localized and so is this tax.
2) Much of the land may very well, be for BH residents only, but really, people living their benefit the most from the open space.
3) Not sure why it is the way it is, but it seems to be a great success out East. Not sure where else on LI it would work other then BH, Riverhead, Southhampton, etc. Nassau county issued 2 $50 and $100M bonds county -wide (and I think Suffolk did as well) that was voted on by the residents to go to open space land purchases.
4) It's very tough...peolple love farms and open space, but that costs money to purchase, it reduces the possible tax base, and it ends up making the houses currently there more expensive. Overall, though, I think it is right to protect the land
Thank you GCGuy, your explanations make a lot of sense. It sounds like there are both good and bad aspects to a special localized tax like this. On one hand, as you say, the more permanently undeveloped land the less houses (making the existing ones more expensive, if the surrounding area is a good one) -- but on the other hand a buyer's tax like this might create enough of a dis-incentive for buyers to make sellers of affected homes have to drop their prices to compensate, or at least offer to split the special tax with the buyer.
I don't know if this sort of tax is deductible (like annual property taxes are) but it sounds like a kind of one-time transfer tax -- which isn't deductible, as far as I know.
Thank you GCGuy, your explanations make a lot of sense. It sounds like there are both good and bad aspects to a special localized tax like this. On one hand, as you say, the more permanently undeveloped land the less houses (making the existing ones more expensive, if the surrounding area is a good one) -- but on the other hand a buyer's tax like this might create enough of a dis-incentive for buyers to make sellers of affected homes have to drop their prices to compensate, or at least offer to split the special tax with the buyer.
I don't know if this sort of tax is deductible (like annual property taxes are) but it sounds like a kind of one-time transfer tax -- which isn't deductible, as far as I know.
Thanks to all the helpful replies, we've come up with a list for our planned weekend (realtor-less!) trip later on this month or early in October -- at this point the schedule is still vague.
We definitely want to check out Dix Hills and certain specific parts of Smithtown. We will also probably go to Huntington Village to see how close to the water the nice north neighborhoods are, as well as where the less desirable neighborhoods to the south are (relative to the village). I'm not ruling Huntington out but do suspect that the areas we end up liking the look of, will also end up being too close to the water for our comfort level.
There seem to be some half-acre zoned areas in Wading River as well, although the houses listed in that town appear to be in either Riverhead (which has that 2% land preservation tax) or Brookhaven (which apparantly will soon have the same) townships. We will probably go there to look around though.
Further south, it appears that all of the half-acre neighborhoods are too close to the water for us. I looked on the MLS for Sayville but the lots are all either too small (when looking for a 2000-square-foot-plus ranch, it is almost mandatory that the lot needs to be at least 1/2 acre -- just as it is up here, in order to fit the house on it) or the listings say things like "beach rights" or "short walk to the bay" which means they are too close to the water.
So as of now the list is Dix Hills, Smithtown, Huntington, and probably Wading River as well. Those four towns seem to offer the best chance of 1/2-acre lot (or larger) neighborhoods that aren't close to the shore/harbor/bay etc.
Thanks to all the helpful replies, we've come up with a list for our planned weekend (realtor-less!) trip later on this month or early in October -- at this point the schedule is still vague.
We definitely want to check out Dix Hills and certain specific parts of Smithtown. We will also probably go to Huntington Village to see how close to the water the nice north neighborhoods are, as well as where the less desirable neighborhoods to the south are (relative to the village). I'm not ruling Huntington out but do suspect that the areas we end up liking the look of, will also end up being too close to the water for our comfort level.
There seem to be some half-acre zoned areas in Wading River as well, although the houses listed in that town appear to be in either Riverhead (which has that 2% land preservation tax) or Brookhaven (which apparantly will soon have the same) townships. We will probably go there to look around though.
Further south, it appears that all of the half-acre neighborhoods are too close to the water for us. I looked on the MLS for Sayville but the lots are all either too small (when looking for a 2000-square-foot-plus ranch, it is almost mandatory that the lot needs to be at least 1/2 acre -- just as it is up here, in order to fit the house on it) or the listings say things like "beach rights" or "short walk to the bay" which means they are too close to the water.
So as of now the list is Dix Hills, Smithtown, Huntington, and probably Wading River as well. Those four towns seem to offer the best chance of 1/2-acre lot (or larger) neighborhoods that aren't close to the shore/harbor/bay etc.
Wading River is a great pick.(Id say stay in Brookhaven if you can
(Riverhead schools will hinder your property value)
(You may want to check out horse country in Ridge and Manorville too.)
Make sure you have dinner at LaPlage.
Take the Ferry to Orient....its a beautiful drive to Wading River.
We definitely want to check out Dix Hills and certain specific parts of Smithtown. We will also probably go to Huntington Village to see how close to the water the nice north neighborhoods are, as well as where the less desirable neighborhoods to the south are (relative to the village). I'm not ruling Huntington out but do suspect that the areas we end up liking the look of, will also end up being too close to the water for our comfort level.
.
I assure you, that the nice neighbhorhoods are not really close to the water, but they do have high water tables anyway. So according to someone i know who lives there, even houses up in the hills, far from the water, get flooded basements at times. Just an FYI.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
