Planning advocates can't sway opposition to Avalon Bay

Planning advocates on Long Island have long argued for more rental housing for young workers and empty nesters. And higher density development around train stations makes complete sense to those who say it could ease traffic congestion and reliance on cars.

But, their arguments fell victim Tuesday night to fears and uncertainties in Huntington Station, where opposition was heated to the construction of the 490-unit Avalon Bay development about a half-mile from the Huntington Station Long Island Rail Road station, and to a large-scale zoning change to create a higher density transit-oriented-development zone, or TOD, for more than a half-mile around the station.

"There's still that fundamental suburban fear about change," said Sarah Lansdale, executive director of Sustainable Long Island, a nonprofit that encourages community planning and supports the Avalon Bay project.

Lansdale argued that the rentals, 75 percent of them market rate, would have brought in "people with means to the neighborhood," she said. "That would stimulate the creation of additional local businesses."

Regional planners see higher density development as key to creating housing diversity, vibrant downtowns and a revitalized economy.

Paul Tonna, the community's former Suffolk County legislator and now vice chair of the Long Island Regional Planning Council, said he found opposition to the proposals "almost surreal. . . . Right now, Huntington Station is a wonderful community, and it's under siege. We need a win, and all this project is going to be is a huge boost to the local economy, for local labor, for local merchants."

He pointed out that Long Island's housing is only 17 percent rental, compared with 37 percent in Westchester County.

Opponents cited increased traffic and possible burdens on the school district and other services from an influx of renters.

Eric Alexander, executive director of Vision Long Island, another planning advocacy group, said some of the opposition resulted from a lack of information and trust in town government. He said an environmental impact study had been conducted for the Avalon Bay project itself, but not for the overall zoning change for transit-oriented-development.

"We've supported the project from day one, but it's more than a yes or no situation," he said. "When you do a zone change that significant you need to do an environmental study [so] you can answer a community's questions about what the impacts will be . . . that process seems to have been skipped."

And he said, some Huntington residents have questioned the viability of a development where people are expected to walk to a train station in an area where there's crime.

Alexander conceded the new housing would increase traffic, but said not as much as if it were further from mass transit. And he said, the school district would have received more taxes from the Avalon Bay development than it would have had to pay out in new costs.

The number of new school children from rental housing is generally less than from single family homes allowed under existing zoning.

High-density developments have often been greeted with hostility and distrust. Avalon Bay developments won approval in Rockville Center and Glen Cove over some heated opposition, and were rejected in Garden City and Oyster Bay. The massive Lighthouse project proposed for the area around the Nassau Coliseum is stalled while local authorities consider zoning at lesser density.

While projects like Avalon Bay fit into regional planning objectives, Alexander cautions against taking solely a regional perspective: "The impacts of development, good or bad, are felt locally, and the decision-making is local," he said. "It's really up to the community to determine their future and their path."