Dismay at Huntington housing plan critics

Dismay over the Huntington School Board's opposition to a higher-density housing project for senior citizens and lively debate over Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo's 2 percent property tax cap proposal dominated a meeting of the Long Island Regional Planning Council.

"Affordable housing is a top priority," said council chairman John D. Cameron Jr. Developing more affordable housing was among the council's list of 39 recommendations in its Long Island 2035 Sustainability Plan released last month. The plan is looking at ways to enhance the Island's economy and infrastructure, reduce multilayered government and curb school and property taxes.

The council has sought school representatives' support for affordable housing to try to overcome residents' opposition. Affordable or "workforce" housing was endorsed by the council's education working group, which consists of the teachers union, school superintendents, school board association leaders and BOCES officials.

It has cited reports showing higher-density housing, such as apartments and town houses, do not lead to large increases in schoolchildren, but can increase tax revenue for communities.

Cameron noted a Newsday article Tuesday about the Huntington School District trustees' decision to oppose higher-density senior-citizen housing projects in Huntington Station proposed by the Huntington Housing Authority.

The school board's decision, Cameron said, shows the council still has a lot of work to do to educate the public. "From our meetings to the trenches, there's a large gap," Cameron told the council.

At the council's meeting, at Molloy College's Suffolk Center at Republic Airport in Farmingdale, council members Paul Pontieri, Patchogue Village mayor, and Farmingdale Mayor George Starkie, staked out opposing views on the tax cap. Pontieri worried that the cap would deprive municipalities of needed funds to pay for government services, some of them mandated, but not funded, by the state.

"Since when does the governor have the right to tell my community you can only have a 2 percent tax increase?" Pontieri said.

But Starkie said, "I'm praying for that 2 percent cap . . . Unless I have that law, I can't negotiate" for cost cuts. "I'm willing to try anything."