In response to a September 20th, Friday evening Huntington Town website upload of a draft negative resolution under SEQRA (pre-dated September 25th, – the third draft since February 2024), NHNP hurriedly made a written submission to the Planning Board and Huntington Town officials one business day later, rebutting the most recent obfuscations from the developers and their vendors.
At the Planning Board Meeting September 25th, the following day, the Town environmental staff publicly stated that they had not had a chance to review our submission and, therefore, could not make a recommendation on the Planning Board’s proposed negative declaration resolution.
A surprisingly contentious exchange followed with the Planning Board Chairman publicly challenging the Chairman of the Town’s Planning and Environment Department decision, threatening to eject the Nathan Hale Nature Preserve Inc. President from the meeting room (when he tried to explain why the committee’s attorney could not be present on short notice), and angrily instructing another attorney representing other civic groups to “sit down” when he tried to intercede as an attorney on behalf of the Nathan Hale group. (The video is available on Town website at https://www.huntingtonny.gov/meetings, select Planning Board meeting September 25 video link and fast forward to 14:30.)
But a pushback by Planning Board members who supported a postponement of the scheduled vote resulted in a postponement of the Resolution vote.
The meeting minutes posted afterward state, “By consensus, the Planning Board postponed the resolution until a future meeting to allow time for the staff to examine the comments submitted by the Nathan Hale Nature Preserve, one day before the meeting.”
What the minutes failed to record is that the pre-dated resolution appeared on the Town website late day on Friday, September 20, and Nathan Hale Nature Preserve Inc committee responded only one business day later.
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