Planning Board Tables Vineyard Bay Estates Resolution

6/27/24 Vineyard Bay Estates developers, their family members, their vendors and sponsors in attendance at the Town of Huntington Planning Board meeting last night seemed surprised when members of the Nathan Hale Nature Preserve (NHNP) committee presented heretofore unknown evidence documenting an illegal action and noncompliance with the SEQRA process.

Perhaps most surprised were the Planning Board members who – at the behest of the developer’s attorney – agreed to table the SEQRA resolution they were ready to approve.

As NHNP neighbors came to the podium to present facts they had uncovered, developers began texting; Board members’ cell phones began buzzing; developers relayed abrupt instructions to their attorney. Sudden one on one meetings were called in the back of the hearing room and the developers’ attorney approached the NHNP legal counsel for agreement.

Subsequently, the developers’ attorney went to the podium and asked the Board to table the resolution and reschedule the public hearing slated for July 24th.

Please contact us for the details, evidence, and/or interviews. The video of the meeting is available on the Town website: “Planning Board Meeting, June 26, 2024” – discussion of Vineyard Bay Estates begins at 14:55 https://www.huntingtonny.gov/meetings

Town Reverses Previous Vineyard Bay Estates Resolution

5/30/24: Last night, the Town of Huntington Planning Board voted to rescind its earlier resolution that would have allowed developers to proceed on a subdivision of 8 Halesite acres. The Board’s unusual and positive action follows the March filing of an Article 78 action in NY State Supreme Court, Long Island by Halesite neighbors opposed to the subdivision plan. The neighbors organized to protect the environmentally and historically important land and establish a nature preserve – the Nathan Hale Nature Preserve.

The Planning Board had issued a Resolution on February 21, 2024 documenting a "negative declaration" under New York Department of Environmental Conservation, State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQRA) and approving the developers' Vineyard Bay Estates subdivision application. 

The Article 78 Respondents, the Planning Board and the developers, Vineyard Bay LLC, were to file answers to the Complaint and Petition Tuesdays. Instead, attorneys representing them contacted Nathan Hale Nature Preserve’s attorneys, Perillo & Hill, last week and an agreement was reached, the terms of which are set forth in the attached Stipulation. The Planning Board agreed to vote and rescind the February 21st Resolution and annul the Planning Board’s SEQRA declaration at last night’s Regular Meeting, after which the Article 78 action would be dismissed without prejudice.

“Unfortunately, although what has been agreed to was presented in writing to the Town Board and Planning Board before issuance of a negative declaration under SEQRA and before the subdivision application was approved, the Resolution was passed and we had to file a lawsuit and spend tens of thousands of dollars to get the Town of Huntington to follow local laws and processes, as well as to comply with New York environmental laws,” said Paul Thomson, a member of the Nathan Hale Nature Preserve Committee and one of the Article 78 Petitioners. “The agreement to essentially restart the subdivision application process and to move the process forward in compliance with the law importantly affords us our rights to be heard and our concerns considered during public hearings that will determine if we can achieve our steadfast commitment to preserve this open space!”

NHNP Brings Fight to New York State Supreme Court

4/15/24: After months of letters and entreaties to the Town of Huntington Town and Planning Boards were met with silence from elected and appointed officials, the Nathan Hale Nature Preserve Committee filed a Verified Article 78 Petition In the Supreme Court of New York State to reverse conditional approvals the Town has granted for the proposed Vineyard Bay Estates subdivision in Halesite.

The 44-page petition (10) outlines chronologically and in detail the defective Town processes that resulted in failure to investigate environmental and safety issues through a mandated New York State SEQRA process.

Responses from the developers, the Town of Huntington and the Incorporated Village of Huntington Bay are expected in early May.