MONTICELLO – In the midst of what Legislature Chair Nadia Rajsz has called a “housing crisis” in Sullivan County, the Legislature voted 6-3 in favor of supporting an affordable housing and infrastructure project in the Town of Liberty during a meeting on March 19. 

Liberty Town Supervisor Frank DeMayo addressed the body before the vote, saying: “I want to inform the Legislature that on Monday night [3/16], the town board voted in favor of support for the application for the infrastructure improvements on Infirmary Road.” DeMayo added that three of the five board members “are very much in favor of this project.”

Despite the backing of Liberty’s Town Board, this project did not satisfy the three legislators who voted “Nay”: Brian McPhillips (District 3), Amanda Ward (District 8), and Nick Salomone (District 4). 

The resolution authorized the Kearney Realty & Development Group, Inc, a real estate development, construction, and property management firm based in Somers, New York, to build an “infrastructure project that will directly support development of a minimum 70-unit workforce/affordable housing development on land currently owned by the County in the Town of Liberty,” according to the meeting agenda. 

The project requires Sullivan County to enter into a contract with New York Empire State Development and will access funds through the County Infrastructure Grant Program, which was allocated $100 million from the 2026 New York State Budget. The resolution authorized spending a total amount of approximately $3.1 Million, of which $1 Million will be funded by the grant through New York State. The remaining $2.1 Million will be covered by Kearney, according to Sullivan County Communications Director Dan Hust.

To support the new housing, the county plans to partner with the Town of Liberty and Delaware Engineering to install new sewer connection lines, a sewer main, a new pump station, an emergency generator, and an additional collection line.

Nays

The most vocal of dissenters was Legislator Brian McPhillips, whose district includes Liberty. He said, “I feel that this is not the type of housing that we need….I do not feel that this particular project will be well supported in the area that it is in. There is a precedent once again that we would be setting: we are dictating placement of a zoning designation that does not fit the zoning criteria of that area. And whether the town board is in favor of it or people are in favor of it, you need to understand that you will be placing high-density housing in a low-density zoned area and we do not have the infrastructure.”

Legislator Nick Salomone was also not impressed with the location, saying, “I took a ride out there and, to be honest with you, the property is in the middle of nowhere, and we have a playground in Hanofee park right nearby, I’m kind of skeptical about the program.”

Yeas

President of the Sullivan County Partnership for Economic Development Marc Baez strongly supported the project, saying, “We have an opportunity here to have someone who has the ability and the expertise to carry out this project in Sullivan County. We don’t have a plethora of housing developers coming into Sullivan County because the math does not work.”

Baez said Kearney Development owns their own facilities instead of releasing the management of the property to a third party in order to maintain control and ensure that operations are secure. “All of their properties are well respected throughout the state; they are a primary developer for the state,” Baez said.

In support of the location, Baez explained a strategy of economic development: “You locate housing development near retail, near your grocery stores, near your services… it’s close to ShopRite, it’s close to restaurants and things on that corridor.”

Another reason to move now on this project, Baez argued, is to lay the foundation for a workforce that is soon to have boots on the ground: “We have projects that are on the table, Grossinger’s [resort] and others in the area, that are going to require housing options for the workforce that’s going to work there.” Baez estimated that Sullivan County will create 300 new jobs in the next two years.

  “[Developers] are not going to go out and buy single family homes right now,” Baez told legislators. “It just doesn’t exist. We don’t have developers that are into making single family homes for that scale for those types of workers, so you need entry-level housing for now.” Baez said Kearney has an expertise in building this type of housing, and managing the grant process for such a project, and “that’s why we support it.”

District 7 Legislator Joseph Perrello also supported the project, saying, “We need housing like this, and we need people to start their roots here…this is how you get the economic base moving.”

Also in support of the project was District 1 Legislator Matt McPhillips, who said, “This is the exact type of housing that we need to keep our young people here. I’ve seen it myself, it’s very difficult to find a place that you would want to live here that’s under $2,000 for rent…When you look at an employer that wants to come in here, the first question that they often ask is where are our employees going to live? If you don’t have the housing to do that, then they might not come, and in the past they haven’t come.” 

McPhillips added that he agreed with resident Ken Walter, who argued that the development of single-family homes would be better for our communities than this entry-level housing project: “I don’t disagree, let’s do single-family too.” 

McPhillips pointed to the Airbnb’s that have “sucked up all the entry-level homes” and made renting in the area prohibitively expensive because these short-term renters can make more money from tourists in the summer than from locals who need a place to live year-round. “This is a step that I think we have to take to ensure that our county can continue to support the people that we produce.”

Legislative Chair Nadia Rajsz concluded, “Liberty is supportive of this, the Partnership is also supportive in promoting this…this is a moment in time when we can get something done.”