Sweet Hollow Civic calls for Melville Apartment Re-Zone to be "Tabled"

By Maureen Daly

The Sweet Hollow Civic Association is calling for the Huntington Town Board to "table" the Melville apartment rezone, and present an actual "Plan" to build the promised Town Center.

In a recent email, Sweet Hollow highlighted that the many speakers at the recent public hearing were not actual members of the community, but ringers for construction developers.

“There were roughly 750 people in attendance, and of the 50 speakers, only about 10 resided in HHH or Melville.”

The Sweet Hollow Civic Association has been referenced several times by Supervisor Ed Smyth and Councilman Sal Ferro, incorrectly claiming the Civic Association is “all in” for the project.

Sweet Hollow said that engineering studies; sewer, power, water, fire, environmental, school, and traffic studies, must be conducted before proceeding.

Even though this is the largest apartment re-zone in Long Island history, a recent document filed Smyth says the project will have "no impact" on the community, therefore "no studies" need to be conducted.

Dennis Morea, a member of the Sweet Hollow Civic Association, recently stressed for residents to wake up to the fact that there’s no plan in the Town's proposed resolutions.

“I think it’s important for people to realize that these resolutions for the Town Center, besides having great promise, there are no  details, no plan put forth by the Town. From what I heard we can’t even get the developers who own the different parcels to come together to agree on a design,” said Morea.

“You asked us to trust you. I say trust but verify. But so far there’s been nothing to verify.”