School Officials Eye Proposed Housing Development
A proposed housing development adjacent to Manor Park in Huntington Station is being tracked by Huntington School District officials who are concerned about the effect of more students entering already crowded schools.
The location of the proposed development is a 26.5 acre wooded site, adjacent to the town park south of the LIRR tracks and running from the State Armory to the Telephonic building along E. 5th Street.
Huntington School Board members Bill Dwyer and Richard McGrath attended a meeting of the Huntington Township Housing Coalition last month at which representatives of Avalon Bay Communities, Inc. gave a presentation about their proposed project.
The site has already been approved for 109 five-bedroom single family homes. In its place, Avalon Bay has proposed a 530 unit complex (20 units per acre) that would consist of 80 percent rental apartments and 20 percent “for sale” town homes. There would be a mix of one, two and three bedroom homes.
Among the rental units, half would be two-bedrooms, 35 percent would be one bedroom and 15 percent would be three bedrooms. The units slated for outright sale would be 50 percent two-bedrooms, and 25 percent one and three bedrooms each, respectively.
Avalon, which is based in Alexandria, VA and which has ten regional offices across the country, currently has apartment communities in 19 markets and six regions stretching from the Pacific Northwest and California to Long Island, where the company has “communities” in Long Beach, Smithtown, Glen Cove, Melville and Coram. In all, Avalon has 2,000 units on Long Island and 51,000 nationally, according to Mr. McGrath.
Avalon would also build an on-site swimming pool, club house and fitness center and it plans on operating a shuttle bus to the Huntington train station for commuters.
At the meeting with Avalon representatives, Mr. McGrath said he “expressed the School Board's strong concern on how this project would impact our already overcrowded schools. I specifically mentioned having to spend almost one million dollars to add two classrooms for $800,000 at Woodhull [Intermediate School] just to open our doors this year.
Avalon responded they understood the school district's concerns and believe addressing them and working with us is a key element to this project. They expressed a desire to have a follow-up meeting as soon as possible to minimize any misinformation about the project and to learn more about our concerns.”
Huntington School Board members have also discussed whether the already approved single family homes development or the Avalon Bay Communities proposal would result in more students for the district.
Huntington Superintendent John J. Finello sent a letter to Town Supervisor Frank P. Petrone about the prospect of the Avalon Bay project becoming reality. “Assuming the proposal is approved and the units are constructed, using the statistics presented to us by the representatives of Avalon Bay, Inc., our school system could gain one hundred students when all of the homes are occupied,” Mr. Finello wrote. “If that were to take place, our current facilities would not be able to accommodate those students nor could we effectively meet educational requirements. I am sure that you will agree such a sudden increase in the student population would not be in the best interests of our students, their families and our community.”
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