Long Island Business News Op-Ed: Huntington Station needs Avalon Bay

by Commentary

Published: March 18, 2011

By David Pennetta

As Mark Twain once said in a different context, rumors of AvalonBay’s death in Huntington are greatly exaggerated. That the Huntington Town Board is taking a new look at a project some thought had been left for dead last year is good news indeed for those concerned about Long Island’s economic future.

Long Island absolutely needs the kind of development that AvalonBay Communities Inc. proposes. I have heard a number of Huntington Station residents extolling the leadership and success of the recently rejuvenated Village of Patchogue. One of the engines and essential building blocks for that successful metamorphosis was the planning for the 110-unit Clare Rose development, the 291-unit Tri Tec development, the Copper Beech 81-unit development and the Artspace 41-unit development. AvalonBay will help create that same crucial tipping point for Huntington Station.

In Huntington Station, near the train station - an area many say is ripe for renewal - AvalonBay came in with a proposal that would replicate the kind of housing that has revitalized communities across the country. Developments of this kind have helped transform challenged downtowns into vital, exciting neighborhoods. Residents skew to the kind of people who have been leaving Long Island in droves - the young, the ambitious, the single, the empty nesters and those seeking a more vibrant community connection.

The revised development proposal that Avalon Bay submitted to Huntington Town on March 8 is scaled back significantly from the original vision. The new plan will have 111 fewer units and 176 fewer bedrooms than the original proposal. The downsized proposal is now in strict conformity with existing zoning codes, representing financial concessions made in hopes of winning over the project’s opponents.

As a commercial broker, I deal with a corporate base that cares deeply about the quality of the work force here and these employers have real questions about what it will be in the future. The continuing exodus of so many who have been squeezed out of the housing market concerns them profoundly.

Huntington Town Board, don’t let Long Island or Huntington Station down. This is not about destroying a community. It’s about keeping it alive.

Pennetta is president of the Commercial Industrial Brokers Society and principal of Oxford & Simpson Realty.