Long Island mayors and supervisors are embracing new housing in their communities — as long as they maintain control of where apartments and condos are built.

Officials from Mineola to Riverhead touted recent development Friday at an event in Woodbury focused on smart growth, a concept that embraces environmentally responsible economic development.

The annual event, hosted by Vision Long Island, a downtown planning organization, drew about 1,000 attendees from business, government and community organizations. 

A dozen town supervisors and village mayors spoke at a panel discussion moderated by Newsday associate editor Joye Brown. It focused in part on how new apartments and condos in their areas could help ease housing shortages.

The event happened the same week that the New York City Council passed the City of Yes package of housing reforms, which is expected to spur  construction of more than 80,000 homes in the city over the next 15 years by allowing denser housing in more areas and rolling back requirements for parking spots for new apartment buildings, among other measures.

Nassau and Suffolk counties have not taken such broad regional steps to spur building, and many suburban lawmakers have railed against state-led attempts to force municipalities to boost their housing stock. Instead, local housing developers often turn to county and municipal industrial development agencies to incentivize new housing with tax benefits. 

On Friday, the speakers were eager to describe recent development in their own communities and emphasized the importance of local control. Mineola Mayor Paul Pereira said  his village has added 1,200 housing units over the past 12 years, mostly near the  Mineola train station, with another 900 in the pipeline.

Pereira said the past decade has shown the village that new development has not caused the problems with higher school enrollment, traffic and parking that opponents of development had feared.

“We have enough in our rearview mirror to realize that the schools did not explode with new students," Pereira said. "Quite the contrary, the schools have gotten a windfall of money. Our traffic is actually better because these are people who are taking the train.” 

Rents in Mineola remain high, with one-bedroom units in the village often renting for $3,000 to $5,000, according to Apartments.com listings.

Riverhead Town Supervisor Tim Hubbard expressed support for increasing accessory dwelling units (ADUs), such as basement apartments or backyard cottages homeowners rent out, as a way to address affordability for young people and offset costs for older homeowners.

He said he wants to remove a town restriction requiring owners to live in their homes three years before they create an accessory unit.

"You can get somebody in there and rent it out either to your family or whatever helps you with the mortgage payment on the house, but a lot of times it's helping family," Hubbard said.

The event came nearly two years after Gov. Kathy Hochul announced a plan to increase the number of housing units by 800,000 over 10 years. That plan was defeated after opposition from suburban lawmakers, who objected to a provision that would have allowed the state to override local zoning decisions if municipalities failed to meet housing goals. 

Oyster Bay Supervisor Joseph Saladino, one of the Republican town supervisors who opposed Hochul’s housing plan, touted more than 500 housing units that are in the works, including the 104-unit mixed-use development Fieldstone at North Broadway in Hicksville, which received approval for county tax breaks last week.

“Obviously, local control is the better path because stakeholders have a tremendous voice,” Saladino said of municipalities maintaining control over their zoning rules.

Officials on Friday said the animosity from recent political fights over development between the Democratic governor and many Republican suburban lawmakers is still evident at community hearings over new projects. 

"When the state tried to take over local zoning, that has so poisoned the minds of so many people and has a lingering effect,” said Brookhaven Supervisor Dan Panico.

Huntington Supervisor Ed Smyth, whose town is considering a plan to transform parts of Melville into a walkable community, said the governor's past housing proposals have fueled skepticism of state housing initiatives.

“There’s a shard of glass in every cupcake coming out of Albany,” he said.

This year, the governor has shifted to an incentive-based approach that requires municipalities to commit to housing growth to become eligible for $650 million in state funding. Fourteen communities on Long Island have been certified as pro-housing by the state, and another 12 have submitted letters of intent to join. 

Eric Alexander, executive director of Vision Long Island, credited the Hochul administration at the event for keeping its word of not introducing new housing mandates and instead offering incentives. He told Newsday he has seen an uptick in opposition to development at community hearings over the past few years.

“It’s not even ‘Not in my backyard’ anymore. It’s ‘Not in my region,’ " Alexander said. "What we’re trying to do now is focus conversations on a hyperlocal level as they always have been and should be."

Dan Lloyd, president of nonprofit Minority Millennials and a housing advocate, said he felt more optimistic about local officials’ receptiveness to housing proposals.

Lloyd said he believes the rise in home prices and rents has fueled that sentiment.

“You have single-family housing that’s on average over $600,000 in Suffolk and $700,000 in Nassau,” he said. “Everyone is feeling the pain.” 

By Jonathan LaMantia

jonathan.lamantia@newsday.com@jonlamantia

Jonathan LaMantia covers residential real estate and other business news on Long Island. He previously covered the business of health care for Crain's New York Business.