Op-Ed: Huntington's Apartments Land Scam - It’s Unconscionable

By Councilwoman Brooke Lupinacci

Yesterday, Newsday reported that a second lawsuit has been filed against Huntington Supervisor Ed Smyth’s efforts to build thousands of high-density urban apartments in the Town of Huntington.

For those who are not aware, the Supervisor is attempting to build the largest apartment project in Long Island history, without conducting any impact studies on schools, water, environment, power, sewers, fire departments, and traffic.

In my remarks at the March 27, 2024 Special Meeting on the Supervisor’s mass apartment re-zone, I said “where are the studies, where is the research, where are the letters of support, where is the plan?”

I mentioned that “the legal mess will just have started” if approved without impact studies.

On December 10, 2024, despite overwhelming objections from the school board, community groups, and residents, the Supervisor arrogantly rammed through the apartments re-zone - without any impact studies.

The second lawsuit against the Supervisor’s re-zone was filed by local oystermen, baymen and environmental groups, claiming that the Supervisor’s efforts are in violation of the State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQRA) because he did not conduct any impact studies.

The Oystermen's lawsuit outlined that the Supervisor’s apartments project could contaminate our drinking water, permanently damage our waterways, and devastate shellfish populations in the Great South Bay by way of additional sewage from thousands of high-density apartments.

Beyond the lasting impact of the Supervisor’s ill-advised project, is the huge cost of these lawsuits on Town taxpayers.

Every Town taxpayer will now be on the hook to pay an outside law firm to defend the Supervisor’s re-zone, more than doing the proper initial impact studies would have ever cost.

Hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees, your hard-earned tax dollars, spent recklessly.

It’s unconscionable.

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Brooke Lupinacci is a Councilwoman in the Town of Huntington, a former Prosecutor of White Collar crimes, and was Human Resources Director of Huntington. She is currently running for Supervisor of the Town of Huntington.