Recent analysis of school district data across Long Island reveals nuanced trends in enrollment, budgeting, and the impacts of new multifamily developments. While some districts have seen modest student population growth, it’s clear that new housing construction is not the primary contributor. Budget increases do not directly correlate with enrollment shifts, and notably, revenue from multifamily projects consistently exceeds the cost of educating the students who reside there—producing a net fiscal benefit for schools. Additionally, concerns about parking associated with these developments appear unfounded; even with lower parking ratios, the data shows no significant strain on street parking, especially in mixed-use areas supported by existing municipal infrastructure.

School District Enrollment and Budget Trends Key Findings:

Enrollment trends are uneven across school districts:

Three of the six districts featured in this analysis experienced a net gain in student enrollment over the past ten years (2010-10), but only two saw a significant increase greater than 5%–suggesting that few Long Island districts are facing an influx of new students.

Where enrollment is rising, new development is not the primary driver:

School-age children residing in the multifamily housing developments studied here constitute less than 20% of new students in districts where enrollment has increased.

Total spending is not a precise indicator of enrollment trends:

Some districts continue to realize increasing budgets for a variety of reasons. However, an increase in budget expenditures does not have a strong relationship to enrollment figures, alone.

Multi-family development project revenue exceeds student costs:

An analysis of estimated annual public student costs associated with the multi-family development projects under study, along with reported ad valorem tax and PILOT revenues paid by these projects shows, in all cases, that the projects generate a net positive financial benefit to the school district (insofar as the school portion of the revenues are shared with the school district). The range in the estimated positive financial benefit to the school district is $54,920 to $737,456, with slightly more than $322,000 representing the median financial benefit for the one-year examined.

Parking Impacts Key Findings:

Low multi-family parking ratios do not increase on-street parking demand.

While the parking ratios examined in this analysis are historically low (below 1.0 parking spaces per dwelling unit, for some developments), our analysis demonstrates that there have been no adverse impacts to on- street parking supply.

New multifamily developments continue to provide parking volume at or above standard minimums.

Only two of the eight properties for which parking figures were obtained had a per-unit parking ratio lower than 1.

Mixed-use multifamily developments may be co-located with other parking-intensive uses, while not contributing directly to demand for space.

As activity in some established Long Island commercial districts continues to shift toward service- and hospitality-oriented businesses, parking demands may increase as a result of rising customer and employee traffic, not new residents upstairs.

Offsite Visitor and Retail Patron Parking Matters.

In communities examined, all feature a combination of metered on-street and off-street parking. This is particularly the case where the town’s business district has realized a marked.

Source: 4ward Planning Inc.