Good evening, everyone.

Welcome to Huntington's Planning Board.

February 25th, 2026.

I'd like to ask you all to please rise and join me for the Pledge of Allegiance.

Thank you, everyone.

We're going to start off the meeting with a appointment.

Elgwood Estates.

Representative for Wood Estates that would like to address the Planning Board.

Mr.

Chairman and members of the Planning Board, Michael McCarthy, I'm an attorney representing the applicant, Elwood Estates, with offices at 444 New York Avenue.

Mr.

Chairman, between the time that we requested the appointment and tonight, we have been working with the planning department staff, the director, Mr.

Alosio, and his attorney, Mr.

Gathman, and Craig Turner, who works quietly behind the scenes.

And I wanted an opportunity to talk to the board.

You were so kind to let us come and speak to you back in early December 2025 to talk about the development of the property that is before the board this evening.

And tonight standing before you we have proceeded to uh tighten up the um the uh the potential application because we still haven't applied for preliminary subdivision approval.

But what we did do, Mr.

Chairman, is we made an application, uh a pre-application to the planning department staff, and that pre-application entailed a steep slope analysis, um, yield analysis, and a cluster map that uh Chris Robinson, who's the project engineer here tonight, uh, you know, prepared and submitted.

Um a question arose, Mr.

Chairman, regarding um the the efficacy of the um of the yield analysis and at what point in the process this board would be looking for a park dedication uh or or um or a fee in lieu thereof or some kind of combination.

Um I think we've adequately worked it out with the planning department staff, I trust, but we showed a map that that demonstrates it's before you, and it's got uh 46 fully conforming residential lots.

Now, as I indicated to the board back in December, it's going to be the intention.

Any chance, Ben, you can show us the cluster map that we want to proceed with?

That's it.

No, I think we updated that one too, then, to show that um that there's uh two additional lots.

We went from 44 to 46.

In any event, long story short, all we did is we demonstrated two fully uh conforming residential lots on Jericho Turnpike.

Now, to be fair, um, if the cluster configuration is adopted by the board and we're requesting it, and we hope that you will, because it will preserve 21 acres of the most steeply sloped portion of the property, and it will allow for the development on lots that will uh exceed about a half acre in size.

Fairly, Mr.

Chairman.

Uh thirteen of those lots on the cul-de-sac that Mr.

Robinson designed will still have uh backyards that uh that come up onto Jericho Turnpike, and uh and we have those two lots that were showing uh on the uh west side of the road coming into the cul-de-sac.

Um we discussed it at length as to as to you know whether or not they would be developed in a residential capacity, uh, whether there might be some future plan for some type of a commercial development.

Um of course that sparked some um chatter in the community as to what it might uh be used for um and dialogue back and forth that we can put whatever restrictions are on it.

It doesn't escape anyone's observation sitting here on the board uh that that piece of property that we're talking about immediately adjoins the commercial property that's located on the corner of Manor Road and Jericho Turnpike.

Succinctly stated, members of the board, we don't have a plan.

We don't have a plan to make a plan.

Um all we're trying to do is proceed with a 44 lot subdivision in earnest.

Uh the way Chris Robinson drew it, it's gonna be uh um 46 lots with the two lots on Jericho Turnpike.

Um when we discussed it back in December, we had them together as one large two-acre parcel.

We've since divided them.

Can you not find it, Ben?

Okay.

It's all right.

In any event, um, so so we were here this evening to discuss the yield analysis and and and whether or not the board was satisfied with the map that Chris Robinson and his firm uh designed, and whether or not we could move forward.

Now, the importance of the yield analysis, as the board knows, is that we're looking for the consensus so that we can move forward and make the application for preliminary subdivision approval.

We're ready to go.

We feel that we've given the uh the planning department and its staff everything they needed.

Uh, again, from a steep slope analysis, lot configuration, um, fully conforming map, cluster uh map, and uh and at this point, um, you know, we're here to to say, you know, thank you for your efforts.

And uh do you have any questions before we move forward and maybe try to resolve that issue?

Well, I'm glad you brought up the fact that this is fully conforming, just to be clear that we have established the yield analysis based upon not the clustered map, based upon it in a non as a non-clustered map, so we could demonstrate that it's really a conforming as-of-right uh yield uh determination, which takes into consideration a full steep slope analysis.

Well, Mr.

Ehrlich, thank you so much for pointing that out.

And I I take it for granted, you know, what I know as far as the process, and you you tend to you attempt to join jump from point to point.

Um but for anyone that's uh in the audience interested, or or maybe you know watching from home, uh before the this board can make a determination on yield, it's incumbent upon the applicant and its engineer to show the the uh planning board and the planning staff what this property can fully and completely yield as a matter of right.

Now, to be clear, we're talking about a 55-acre piece of property, and in that 55 acres of property, we have to subtract from the yield analysis um roads, uh recharge basin, and uh and those portions of the of the steep slope portion of the property that would require a larger lot.

Now, under the town of Huntington's steep slope ordinance, the largest lot you're gonna get is gonna be two acres anyway.

I'm sorry, one acre anyway.

So when Mr.