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Huntington LIRR yard

Huntington Slams MTA's Plan; Proposed rail yard riles town officials

By Alfonso A. Castillo, STAFF WRITER

2003 September 02

Huntington officials and hundreds of town residents gathered at a public hearing
Wednesday to slam a proposed MTA plan to build a 16-track rail yard in
Huntington Station.

At the same meeting, the Huntington Town Board voted unanimously to add a
$30-million open-space bond as a referendum on the November ballot.

The Huntington Town board held the meeting to compile testimonies from
residents that they hope will be useful in stopping the rail yard, which is part of
the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's continuing plan to extend
electrification to tracks east of the town.

Huntington residents hoped the threat of a rail yard was behind them after the
MTA pulled a similar plan to build a storage facility in Greenlawn in 2000. But in
April, MTA officials notified the town that they were considering two sites in
Huntington town - one in East Northport south of Pulaski Road and another
adjacent to the state armory in Huntington Station.

The meeting focused on the latter site, which residents said would be a terrible
choice for the rail yard because of its proximity to a park, a day care center and
a community with a high senior and minority population. They said the proposed
rail yard would hurt quality of life and property values because of noise and air
pollution.

"I think probably that they didn't realize the inequities of this site," said
Democratic town board member Susan Berland. "The site is really fatally flawed."

Residents and elected officials also criticized the MTA for keeping them out of the
loop in the site selection process and speculated that the agency chose the
Huntington Station site with hopes that the community, which officials say is
economically challenged and in the middle of a large-scale revitalization, would
not speak up.

"Do not allow the Town of Huntington to be pushed around and railroaded, per
se, by the MTA," Huntington Station resident Barbara Peterson said at the
meeting.

MTA spokesman Brian Dolan said the railroad included the Huntington sites only
because of size and proximity to the Port Jefferson line. Dolan said the MTA has
reached out to the town and to residents and will continue to do so with a series
of informational meetings, the first of which tentatively is scheduled for
November. He said a final site probably will not be chosen until 2005 and the
yard would not be operational until 2011. "We're still in the very early stages of
the process," he said.

Also at the meeting, the town board passed a resolution to let residents vote in
November on a $30-million bond act to preserve open space and seek
improvements in parks and the community.

The move comes at the halfway mark of a 10-year bond passed in 1998 that
allotted $15 million to open space and park improvements. Town Open Space
Committee chair Joy Squires said the town already has spent or earmarked
about 75 percent of that money in nine completed purchases, three that are
pending and four that are being considered.

"We have to act now. We can't wait," Supervisor Frank Petrone said. "Next year
it just really may be too late.""

With the help of county funds, the town has preserved about 126 acres of open
space and is looking to save about 56 more. Squires said the 1998 bond is
costing the average homeowner about $18 a year and, if approved, the new
bond will cost about $37 more.

Of the $30 million, $20 million will go for open space, $7 million for park
improvements and $3 million for community enhancements, including the
ongoing Huntington Station revitalization.

Copyright © 2003, Newsday, Inc.

from
http://www.newsday.com/news/printedition/longisland/ny-lihunt293438226sep02,0,7788584.story?coll=ny-linews-print

Posted by dc at September 1, 2003 09:38 PM