New York Wiki

Huntington Y: NIMBYs

Parking, traffic, and pedestrian issues concern the expansion of the YMCA

at Jackson Avenue.

Residents object to plan
YMCA's proposal to reconfigure its parking lots raises concerns about traffic
and safety

ALFONSO A. CASTILLO, STAFF WRITER
2004 March 24

Per its motto, the YMCA organization builds "strong kids, strong families and
strong communities."

Add to that: strong opposition, at least to a proposed expansion by the
Huntington Y that brought about 100 town residents to a zoning board of appeals
meeting Monday night at Town Hall, just across the street from the facility.

Most came from Jackson Avenue, a residential street of about a dozen homes
abutting the YMCA that will be hardest hit by the proposed 18,600-square-foot
Youth and Family Center expansion. Their chief concern is a plan to reconfigure
the Y's parking lots to eliminate one existing lot and replace it with a new lot
adjacent to Jackson Avenue.

"They have no respect for this property," Jennifer Dworkin, whose home is
closest to the proposed lot, told the board. "Putting a parking lot behind my
house is not going to solve anything."

The plan also makes Jackson Avenue into a cut-through between the Huntington
Cinema Arts Centre and Main Street, potentially routing a rush of cars there each
day.

YMCA officials insist the plan is the best way to address traffic and pedestrian
safety issues. At the hearing, they testified that the current parking situation
forces YMCA users to cross a busy road to enter the building, poses traffic
hazards to drivers exiting onto Main Street and encourages cars to park on
residential streets.

The plan would address the problems and create more parking to go along with
the expanded facilities and programs, the YMCA's Huntington attorney Richard
Gordon said. "The bottom line is that we are in desperate need of space," he
said.

But residents said the proposed design is the worst of many options. Melville
attorney Eugene Barnosky, who represents several residents, said there is no
reason why, with 10 acres of open land, planners would clear trees and put a
parking lot right next to the only homes near the area. "It defies all general
precepts of good planning," Barnosky said.

Further complicating the issue is the zoning board's confusion on exactly what it
is voting on. The case was sent to the zoning board after the town building
department rejected a building permit application last year because the location
was not legally zoned for the project. But YMCA officials now maintain that a
1995 decision legalized the Y's operations there. ZBA chairman Christopher
Modelewski said among the board's options is to send the project back to the
building department.

One thing the board won't do, Modelewski said, is cater to public sentiment, even
in the face of a town hall filled with angry residents. "We decide our cases based
on the rule of law, not on the rule of numbers," he said.

Posted by dc at May 3, 2004 08:24 PM