The decades-old Matinecock Court housing battle returns to the Huntington Town Board Thursday for another vote.
Since 1978, developers and housing groups have fought to put housing onto unoccupied land, now owned by the nonprofit Housing Help Inc., at the intersection of Pulaski and Elwood Roads in East Northport.
At issue this time is the meaning of “limited equity cooperative,” with developer Peter G. Florey saying the 146 units, instead of half owned, half rented as originally proposed, would be cooperatives owned by the residents. Opponents claim that the units would actually all be rentals, not owned by individuals.
Housing Help Inc. and the town reached agreement in 2000 to allow the development of one, two and three-bedroom units to go forward. But because of the change in the language of the agreement from a mix of rentals and ownership, the board will have to vote again to accept the new terms.
That has stirred up more opposition. Councilman Ed Smyth, who will become supervisor in January, challenges Florey’s definition of “limited equity cooperative.”
“My biggest objection is that this is a deception perpetrated on the public. This is a rental project,” Smyth said Monday. “The limited equity given as a down payment is really a security deposit.”
Florey’s company took over the project this spring after the previous company, citing an increase in costs, said it would not continue.
Opponents say that the development would overburden the Northport-East Northport school district and worsen traffic.
The Town Board meeting starts at 7 p.m. at Town Hall.
This is the definition of Limited Equity Cooperative, as per the Local Housing Solutions organization: A limited equity cooperative (LEC) is a homeownership model in which residents purchase a share in a development (rather than an individual unit) and commit to resell their share at a price determined by formula—an arrangement that maintains affordability at purchase and over the long term.