Huntington OKs new zoning regulations for downtowns to ease congestion, create new density limits

The Huntington Town Board has voted to overhaul zoning in its downtowns to alleviate parking congestion and ease the burden on infrastructure.

The board voted 3-2 at its July 21 meeting to update the town’s C-6 zoning, a classification for commercially zoned properties that allows for mixed-use buildings.

Supervisor Chad Lupinacci said this fulfills a campaign promise he made along with his running mate, Council Ed Smyth, who joined him in co-sponsoring legislation they said addresses threats to the town’s suburban charm.

“We promised to protect quality of life in Huntington by stopping the abuse of loopholes in amendments to the Town Code that were added in 2006, which have resulted in every unpopular development project you have seen built in downtown Huntington over the past 11 years, all approved before this administration,” Lupinacci said. “It took some time and careful consideration, but we worked hard to get it right the first time and I am proud to deliver this promise in my first term as supervisor.”

The changes govern the Huntington downtown area and where C-6 zoning exists throughout most of the town. The changes exclude the Huntington Station Overlay District to encourage investment in the underserved area, town officials said.

The updates include regulating the size and scale of mixed-use development, consisting of commercial uses on the ground floor and residential apartments on the upper floor(s); establishing a new 38-foot height limit; promoting economic activity on the ground floor by limiting storage or community space to no more than 15% of the ground floor; prohibiting placement of parking in the front of existing buildings converting to mixed-use; increasing the required parking to be provided on-site from one space per apartment to 1.5 spaces per studio or one-bedroom apartment, plus 0.5 spaces per additional bedroom.

The updates also create a new density limit on new construction or projects expanding the footprint of existing buildings, by requiring the combined square footage of upper floors not to exceed 150% of the first floor. 

Town board members Mark Cuthbertson and Joan Cergol voted against the updates. Gene Cook voted in favor of it.

Roger Weaving Jr., president of the Huntington Township Housing Coalition, an affordable housing advocacy organization, said tighter rules make it more difficult and more expensive to build. He said that leads to less affordable housing, which in turn perpetuates a system that does not benefit people of color and lower-income workers who often work in restaurants and retail and who could benefit from living closer to their workplaces.

“What we’d like to see now is a plan on where they are going to build the affordable housing that our neediest families need to survive,” Weaving said.

Other residents’ hostility over development in downtown Huntington was on display at several town board meetings over the past couple of years. They demanded that officials amend code to preclude what they called overdevelopment and successfully derailed at least one project. 

The other legislation passed includes new requirements for Planning Board site plan review in the downtown Huntingotn area, such as traffic impact analysis and mitigation; requiring tighter environmental oversight, including sewer and system capacity impact analysis in the Huntington Sewer District; and requiring the Historic Preservation Commission to advise the Planning Board with architectural review on new buildings, front facades, exterior additions or alterations above 1,000 square feet, and any type of demolition.

The board also enacted eliminating the use of the town’s newly acquired municipal parking lots downtown to satisfy parking requirements for new development.

By Deborah S. Morris

deborah.morris@newsday.comdsvmorris

Deborah Morris is a native Long Islander and covers the town of Huntington.