Tioga County Legislature seeks grant toward future housing development

Correction: In our March 29, 2026 print edition of The Owego Pennysaver Press, we featured a story, “Tioga County Legislature seeks grant toward future housing development.” With this story were two photos: one of a field on Strong Road, and the other, a regrid.com photo of the two parcels off Montrose Turnpike and Strong Road, owned by the County’s IDA. 

The field in the Strong Road photo is not owned by the IDA, and it is privately owned and posted as such. The IDA property is located further down the road. We apologize for publishing a photo of the wrong parcel for our readers. 

ORIGINAL STORY:

[By Matt Freeze]

OWEGO — The Tioga County Legislature voted to move forward with seeking grant funds to extend water and sewage utilities to the site of what officials hope will eventually become a small, market-rate housing development.

At a special Legislature session last Thursday morning, County Planning Director Sara Zubalsky-Peer said that there’s an IDA-owned, 86-acre vacant plot of land on Strong Road, just off of Montrose Turnpike.

“It’s situated just outside the village, just uphill from Owego Gardens,” Zubalsky-Peer said.

Back in 2022, the IDA retained Larsen Design Group to prepare a concept plan for up to 25 single-family homes on two-acre lots consistent with the Town of Owego zoning law.

Zubalsky-Peer said that in the past year, the County Economic Development and Planning Department made contact with Larsen Design to evaluate and develop a feasibility study on the cost of extending municipal sewer and water infrastructure to that site to support the housing development proposal.

It was determined that poor soil conditions prohibit the use of wells.

As such, EDP is pursuing $500,000 in Empire State Development County Infrastructure Grant funds for the $2.5 million utility extension project.

The IDA would be responsible for securing additional grant funds to help close the gap, but Zubalsky-Peer said she couldn’t speak specifically on which grants the IDA is considering.

Legislator Jo Ellen Rose said she and some other legislators were at the New York State Association of Counties conference earlier this week, and that Governor Kathy Hochul was in attendance to speak about a pro-housing initiative that might be able to help fund the project.

Zubalsky-Peer said she was aware of the funding initiative, but the Town of Owego has not opted into the state’s “Pro-Housing Community Program,” which precludes the project from that funding stream.

Legislators said they weren’t certain how a town can opt into the program, but agreed they would look into it to see whether they would support the town moving in that direction.

“It’s something we should examine because (Hochul) clearly stated that she had more money than she had applicants,” Rose said. “This is one of those situations where we have to put politics aside and look at what’s best for the community, and I would also like to see what that would mean for this project.”

Rose said during her NYSAC speech, Hochul acknowledged the “barriers and rigmarole” that have been the experience of people trying to learn about the Pro-Housing Communities program.

“She said, basically, they were doing everything in their power to cut that minutia and stuff to make it more accessible,” Rose said, and added that she’s not necessarily recommending the program, as she’s not well-versed in it, but that given it sounds possibly helpful to this project, it should at least be considered.

A summary of the state’s Pro-Housing Community Program states that the town must adopt a specific resolution written by state officials promising that the town will speed up permits for housing projects, be fair about housing for all incomes and races, consider regional housing costs, and allow more homes to be built.

The state claims it’s not a hard set of rules and calls it a “statement of values.”

Additionally, state officials said certified municipalities would receive priority ranking for the $100 million allocated for pro-housing infrastructure grants and other funding streams.

Legislators unanimously authorized Chairman Tracy Monell to sign any necessary documents related to the grant process after review by the county attorney.

(Matt Freeze is a Senior Writer for the Sayre Morning Times.)