Town updates tax classification for West Hills townhouses

The Huntington Town Board voted to change the taxing classification of the luxury housing in the new Kensington Estates senior community in West Hills from single-family to the townhome category. 

The housing for those 55 and older remains  zoned as a retirement community district, but the covenant dictating the taxing classification was revised for applicant, Flushing, Queens-based developer Triangle Equities, out of fairness, a town official said. 

Town board member Joan Cergol said a condition was placed during Triangle Equities' request for a zoning change in 2011. The developer had to agree to a covenant for the townhomes to be taxed as single-family homes.

Cergol sponsored the resolution approved unanimously at the Sept. 17 town board meeting that changed the covenants and restrictions.

“They were asked as a condition of a zone change to submit to a methodology of having it taxed essentially as a single-family home, even though they were condos,” Cergol said. “They were led to believe that this was a new policy in the town and that’s the way it was, and they agreed to it.”

She said over the years other senior complexes were built and those projects were allowed to have their units taxed as condos.

“Now they are finding themselves at a disadvantage from a marketing point of view trying to sell condos and the taxes are as if they are single-family homes,” Cergol said. “With this change they are now on a par similar to other senior developments; they are now going to taxed as condo.”

Kensington Estates straddles Woodbury and West Hills at the intersection of Jericho Turnpike and Plainview Road. The project is described on its website as a luxury, gated boutique development of 80 townhomes.