Some building permits on hold in Levittown as officials consider tightening house size limits

The Town of Hempstead will not approve permit applications for an unspecified number of houses in Levittown while the town board considers zoning changes that would reduce the size of residences that can be built there, town officials said at a hearing Tuesday.

“The permits that are on hold right now will not be released until this is decided,” Town Supervisor John Ferretti said at the end of a more than two-hour hearing.

The hearing on a proposed zoning change to reduce the allowable building area for houses in the Levittown Planned Residence District — a district encompassing Levittown as well as parts of surrounding areas — drew a standing-room-only crowd. The proposal would shrink the allowable building area to 27.5% of a lot size from 30%.

Most residents testifying at the hearing said their neighborhood was losing its character as smaller homes have been knocked down and replaced with larger "McMansions," and some called for even greater restrictions.  

Levittown “has homes that are a great size for younger families and ...  for seniors who want to stay in the area but need to downsize,” Debra Saunders, a retired teacher and Wantagh resident, told the board. “Enormous houses are changing our community vibe," Saunders said.

The resulting higher home prices are "making it unaffordable for my children's generation and the generations to follow,” she said.

Matt Koch, a retired federal agent who grew up in Levittown, said he did not support reducing home size. “I see this as sort of a de facto display of racism towards the increasingly large Indian American community in Hicksville that's moving down … into Levittown,” Koch said.

Ferretti said race had nothing to do with the proposal. 

The demographics of Levittown have changed in recent years. According to 2010 census data, Levittown had a population of 51,881 and was 88.9% white. By 2024, according to census estimates, the population was 51,904, and the proportion of white residents had fallen to 66.2%.

At the start of the hearing, Ferretti said that people could still get permits under the existing law for up to 30% of the lot until the law changed. 

But several speakers said their permit applications, or their clients', had been ignored by the building department for months, risking investments already made before the proposal was public.

Attorney Manjit Singh, of Levittown, asked that a zoning change not apply to those who have already filed permit applications. “A lot of my clients have invested a lot of money into these, and they're going to lose all that money,” Singh said.

Town Attorney John Maccarone said they'd be required to meet the new guidelines.

Singh said there had been no economic-impact study on the proposal.

Councilman Dennis Dunne Sr., lifelong Levittown resident, said that he had studied the issue by talking to people in the community. “I love the place the way it is,” Dunne said and suggested that the proposal might be tweaked.

“This is my home. These are my friends, my neighbors,” Dunne said. “We're going to do what’s right for them, not some investor.”

The hearing is scheduled to resume May 12.