EDITORIAL: A real loss in Huntington Station

Affordable housing within walking distance of the LIRR station is a proposal that could kick-start the revival of Huntington Station. Even the school district rose above the usual fear of new students and agreed to it. But now the school board has bailed out, and the town board seems ready to cave, though some of the opposition is from people with a broader political agenda who don't even live in the Station.

AvalonBay Communities builds good housing, often in places that really need revitalization. It proposed 530 units (now down to 490) on land where the current owner could build 109 single-family homes. None of the 109 would be in the affordable price range; 25 percent of the Avalon Bay units would. And the single-family homes would send more students to the schools.

To approve the higher density needed for this project, the town would create a transit-oriented development district. TOD means affordable, walkable communities at transit hubs. But opponents have nurtured the fact-free fear that approval of this plan could spread TOD to areas as unlikely as Dix Hills, which has no major hub suitable for a TOD.

Another baseless fear is that it will bring in crime. Ironically, the same school board that removed students from the Jack Abrams School out of concern for safety is now trying to kill a plan that it once accepted, one that would bring life and economic activity to Huntington Station and make it safer. The death of this idea would be a case of our Island at its worst. hN