No vote on Huntington Station senior housing
Huntington's zoning board of appeals voted unanimously Thursday night to deny a variance for a controversial senior-housing project in Huntington Station.
The Huntington Housing Authority proposal required a variance because it had a higher density than allowed by zoning codes.
The Huntington school district opposed the plan and hired an attorney last month to file litigation against the board and stop it.
"We're grateful that the board has adopted our position with respect to the dangerous precedent that this application would have set if granted," said Vincent Messina, the attorney hired by the school board. "We're thankful they fairly heard the application and fairly applied the law."
The proposal for the 2.99-acre property on Lowndes Avenue called for 46 one-bedroom senior units in two buildings in an area zoned for only 15 units per acre.
A vote on the variance was tabled last week to allow lawyers representing each side to exchange paperwork that had been submitted to the zoning board.
The housing authority faced a Tuesday deadline to secure $20 million in state funding, which would have come with a 9 percent tax credit.
William Spencer, housing authority chairman, said he was disappointed by the decision.
"We'll have to sit down and think of an alternative plan, maybe with much less density," he said.
Huntington school board members and some residents argued against the project at recent meetings, claiming there was enough high-density public housing in the area.
Robert James, a Huntington Station resident for 22 years, spoke at last week's hearing against the project.
He attended Thursday night to hear the outcome.
"I agree with the decision," he said. "We already have far too much density in Huntington Station and it would have set a dangerous precedent."
Messina, a former Islip Town attorney who represented Republican Randy Altschuler during the vote recount of his unsuccessful bid to oust Rep. Tim Bishop (D-Southampton) in the 1st Congressional District, said the development would have been within the school district's "zone of interest" because of its proximity to the recently shuttered Jack Abrams School.
Before calling a vote, zoning board chairman Christopher Modelewski said he was concerned the development could have caused problems down the road.
"It has potential for drastic change in the community and our inability to treat other similarly situated applicants differently," he said.
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