AvalonBay Huntington Station Revised Proposal
Development Highlights
Background
- In September 2010 the Huntington Town Board rejected the AvalonBay TOD (Transit-Oriented-Development) application at Huntington Station.
- After the Town Board rejected the TOD application, many in the community urged AvalonBay not to not abandon Huntington Station.
- In February 2011, Town of Huntington invited AvalonBay to re-examine the opportunity at Huntington Station and consider a revised and considerably scaled-down proposal.
- In March 2011, after considering the Town’s invitation and its ramifications for the development, AvalonBay decided to submit a revised proposal for the development of Huntington Station.
- The scaled down proposal was made economically feasible by major financial concessions on the part of the current property owners, the Bonavita family. Without these concessions, the revised proposal would not have been possible.
- In developing its revised proposal, AvalonBay took into consideration, and responded to, the community's concerns about density and its impact on traffic congestion, schools, and quality of life.
The Revised Proposal
- Compliance. The new proposal eliminates the TOD district. It complies with all height, parking and affordability requirements of the existing Town of Huntington’s R-3M ordinance.
- Density. The density in the new proposal is decreased to comply with the existing R-3M zoning ordinance. The revised Huntington Station density is identical to the density at Avalon Court & Court North in Melville.
- Number of Units. The new proposal is for 379 units of multifamily housing which complies with the Town of Huntington’s existing R-3M zoning. Compared to the previous application of 490 units, the unit count has decreased by 111 homes and 176 bedrooms.
- Rental/For-Sale Percentage. Of the 379 units, 80% (or 303 units) will be rental homes and 20% (or 76 units) will be for-sale homes. This is the same percentage breakdown as in the previous TOD proposal.
- Unit Mix. The mix of apartment homes will consist of 94 1BRs, 181 2BRs, and 104 3BR homes.
- Affordable Housing. In conformity with the R-3M Town code, 54 of the apartment homes will be designated as workforce housing.
- Impact on School District. The scaled down development is expected to result in a total of 65 to 78 additional school-aged children. It is estimated that the net cost to the school district (tax revenue generated by the new development minus the cost of educating the expected new students) for this new student population will result in an annual surplus ranging from $2,067 (essentially break-even at 78 students) to $307,255 (a modest benefit at 65 students). This compares to a $1,676,987 net annual cost to the school district for the estimated 128 new students who would live in 109 single family homes.
- Benefits of the Proposal. The merits of the revised application are significant – job creation, economic revitalization, and creation of needed housing.
- Traffic Mitigation. Although considerably scaled down, the revised submission retains the previous TOD proposal's traffic mitigation measures, including a new traffic signal at the corner of Park Avenue and 5th Street, which will improve traffic flow and increase safety.
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