Campaign for Melville Town Center housing hits pause

Daily Point

LIBI super PAC halts ads as Huntington punts

While your various screens are inundated with candidate ads, there have been some new ones popping up on an issue that is a leading concern: housing.

The Long Island Builders Institute’s new super PAC last week began its first campaign — a series of digital ads focused on the Town of Huntington’s Melville Town Center proposal.

The super PAC, called The Coalition for Long Island’s Future, began running the ads last Wednesday. While officials did not disclose how much money was spent on the ads, one source told The Point it was a "healthy five-figure ad buy."

The ads spotlight Huntington’s effort to establish an overlay district to allow for housing and mixed-use development along Maxess Road south of the Long Island Expressway and east of Route 110.

And within the first two days of the effort, the Coalition’s website saw 1,600 clicks from the ads, according to LIBI chief executive Mike Florio.

But only days after the campaign began, LIBI hit "pause."

That move came after Huntington Town Supervisor Ed Smyth announced Friday that the town was considering making changes to the Melville Town Center plan — including reducing the cap on housing units from 2,500 to 1,500 and delaying indefinitely a resolution that would have allowed mixed-use construction along the outer perimeter of the zone. Those changes will be discussed at the board’s Tuesday meeting, and another public hearing — the fifth on the project — is being planned for November. The vote expected to take place at the October meeting will therefore be delayed.

As a result, the rest of LIBI’s short-lived ad campaign will wait, Florio said.

"We’re holding off now and we’ll reevaluate as this goes forward," Florio told The Point Monday.

But Florio also expressed concern about the further delay.

"The town has conducted listening sessions over the course of a year and now will have held five public meetings in six months to solicit feedback on this proposal," Florio said. "The time to act is now."

Florio said the ads were primarily geared to raise awareness among the community about the specific project, noting that the Melville proposal "really embodies a lot of the issues we have on Long Island."

"We need to look at areas, especially previously developed areas, that are no longer functioning as they originally intended," Florio said.

The digital ads emphasized the Melville Town Center’s ability to "revitalize Long Island."

"The Melville Town Center will be an economic engine for Huntington," says one. "Help keep taxes under control by supporting the Melville Town Center."

The ads linked to the Coalition’s website — coalition4li.com — which remains active and features details about the proposal and links to a letter supporters can send to the town.

"Most reasonable people when you talk to them support the idea of redevelopment and mixed use in that area," Florio said. "We have to do something and the original plan that was put forward is the best opportunity to do something meaningful right now."

— Randi F. Marshall randi.marshall@newsday.com

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