With a shortage of housing across the nation and the need for affordable housing becoming a kitchen-table issue, Oneida County is taking steps to lay foundations with the release of its new report and guidebook.
According to the National Housing Crisis Task Force, home price-to-income ratios have reached record highs and 50% of renter households are spending 30% to 50% of income on rent, and the increase in street and sheltered homelessness has been higher than at any point since 2007.
On the state level, Gov. Kathy Hochul’s administration has invested more than $20 billion since 2021 to support the creation of affordable housing and has financed the creation of more than 81,000 affordable homes since then.
But there’s a serious need for housing in Oneida County. According to the 2025 Housing Market Inventory Assessment and Strategy Report submitted by Urban Partners in March 2025, the market will need to accommodate 6,070 new housing units by 2040. This includes a need for more senior housing as the aging population of Oneida County increases and housing for those in the middle-income bracket.
Housing shortage is a two-pronged problem, Picente says
To remedy this, Oneida County has taken a step in its strategy to address housing needs. The newly released document provides municipalities with practical tools, model strategies and policy guidance.
Oneida County Executive Anthony Picente Jr. said in a statement May 4 that while it’s not a once-size-fits-all solution, it provides a framework to help municipalities increase housing supply.
On May 6, Picente told the Observer-Dispatch the housing shortage is a two-pronged problem. There was a demand for different types of housing beyond what was on the market and a general need to meet demands of the county’s growing economy as businesses like Chobani expands.
“The study identified that over the next several years, over 6,000 units are needed from single-family dwellings to multi-family family dwellings,” Picente said. “There’s also a demand for housing like townhouses and condos. Now, it’s just a matter of how we get there and what we need to do.”
According to the report, new housing construction in the county has “ … historically trailed behind larger metro markets” and that while multi-family and mixed-use projects have thrived in the past five years, new single-family homes, duplexes, condominiums and townhomes have not. And the opportunity for growth and new construction exists.
“There are approximately 400+ single lots available, zoned appropriately, and with access to municipal water and utilities,” the report reads. “Additionally, there are 5-10 large tracts of land in population centers across the county that are either existing subdivisions ready for construction, subdivision-ready with significant diligence completed, or in the planning process and nearing construction-ready status.”
Breaking down what municipalities can do for new housing
To that end, the Housing Guidebook outlines a range of strategies that municipalities can adopt or tailor to their specific needs, including:
“The guidebook is there to outline a good process as municipalities pitch their areas for housing projects,” Picente said. “It’s to help, whether it’s to streamline or put in place the planning and zoning needed to deal with new housing.”
In the guidebook, there are multiple sections for local municipalities to consider, such as incentive zoning.
This would allow local municipalities to provide bonuses to encourage developers to provide certain benefits to a community or develop housing that would otherwise be difficult to produce without interventions. This could be something like revitalizing a building in a downtown area, meeting thresholds of workforce or including desired elements in projects.
Another part of the guidebook suggests permitting manufactured, modular, 3D printed, and mass timber constructed homes in a wide range of zoning districts.
“This will allow communities to have a more diverse range of housing options and increase the number of suitable sites for these types of housing,” the guidebook reads. “Adopting design standards can ensure the homes fit into the neighborhood character.”
While it’s going to be the municipality’s job to attract developers looking to build new housing, Oneida County and Picente’s administration have their own projects in place to help development.
When asked what his administration is working on, Picente said he couldn’t go into the details at the time, but was excited at the Oneida County Industrial Development Agency’s new policy that will allow payment in-lieu of taxes agreements for multi-unit projects.
“It would reduce the overall cost of construction and then pass that saving on to either the homeowner or lessee, stimulating growth hand-in-hand,” he said.
Picente went on to say that local municipalities should start looking at what kind of housing they have and where they want to be in the future.
According to the housing report, “ … no single municipality or submarket has the resources or capacity to resolve [the county’s] issues alone. Instead, a unified process that brings together the county, local governments, non-profit organizations, and businesses is essential for achieving measurable progress.”
To read the guidebook in full, visit oneidacountyny.gov/departments/planning/housing.
This article originally appeared on Observer-Dispatch: Oneida County creates guidebook on creating 6K housing units in 15 years
Reporting by Casey Pritchard, Utica Observer Dispatch / Observer-Dispatch
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