Avalon in Oyster Bay
In Oyster Bay, Friends of the Bay is up in arms about a proposal by Avalon Communities to build 300 apartments – called AvalonBay – on the site of an old car dealership. Tonight is the scoping session for the formal environmental review, and it’s an excellent chance for the public to let the town board know which topics local residents think need scrutiny.
The developers estimate that 470 people will live in the 300 apartments. One obvious question is how will sewage from the project be handled, and in particular how will the increase affect the town’s responsibility to decrease the amount of nitrogen that enters Long Island Sound from sewage treatment plants. Oyster Bay, like all other Sound communities, is responsible for meeting the 58.5 percent nitrogen reduction goal of the Sound cleanup.
The Friends of the Bay website, here, has more.
The developers estimate that 470 people will live in the 300 apartments. One obvious question is how will sewage from the project be handled, and in particular how will the increase affect the town’s responsibility to decrease the amount of nitrogen that enters Long Island Sound from sewage treatment plants. Oyster Bay, like all other Sound communities, is responsible for meeting the 58.5 percent nitrogen reduction goal of the Sound cleanup.
The Friends of the Bay website, here, has more.
posted by Tom Andersen at 7:39 AM
2 Comments:
Avalon has a long history here in Connecticut of exploiting the state's affordable-housing laws to ramrod through large developments that otherwise wouldn't stand a snowball's chance in front of local land use boards. Don't know how things work in NY, though.
Here's a local NY perspective, for what it's worth. Avalon built a behemoth of a project (256 units) in Glen Cove on the north shore of LI, on the site of an old hardware store and parking lot. The Glen Cove IDA actually worked to get them to build, by giving them some sales tax breaks and consolidating the property tax into a fixed PILOT. Apparently, that's what IDA's do. That was Phase I. Phase II is in the works, albeit a little smaller (156 units) but with similar benefits thanks to the IDA. This is all luxury housing. Nothing workforce about it. Now, with Glen Cove government (at the time) actually desiring these projects, there was no significant local resistance.
Here's a twist: Matthew Whalen, VP for Development at Avalon, took time out of his busy schedule to send a letter to FERC on November 8, in praise of the Broadwater project. According to Mr. Whalen, "...Long Island must control its own energy future and...Broadwater offers the possibility of access to an abundant supply of natural gas...."
If you were on the fence about Avalon before, perhaps their lobbying for Broadwater will push you over.
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