Developer Pulls Villadom Plan, Crowd Vents Anyway
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Over 650 people, many hoping to speak or learn more about a developer’s controversial plan to build a mixed-use development in Elwood, packed into the auditorium at Elwood Middle School last Thursday for a town board meeting. (Photo/Town of Huntington)
By Connor Beach
cbeach@longislandergroup.com
Hundreds filled the Elwood Middle School auditorium last Thursday night to voice their opposition to a proposed shopping center on Jericho Turnpike in Elwood, despite the developer’s decision to withdraw the application for the proposal earlier that day.
Applicant Syndicated Ventures LLC wrote to town hall on Wednesday to communicate intentions of altering its plan, and then again on Thursday to withdraw the application altogether.
In an email received Friday Kris Torkan, president of Syndicated Ventures LLC and Great Neck-based Villadom Corp., said the application was withdrawn “to provide us with sufficient time to re-craft a plan that the community will support.”
“This is a very special parcel of land, upon which something wonderful and community oriented can be developed,” Torkan said. “We intend to build that plan.”
The cancellation of the official public hearing on the proposal did not deter over 650 residents from attending the meeting, and 99 from signing up to speak.
Only Maria Mediavilla, daughter of the owner of the nearly 50-acre property where Torkan planned to build the 486,380-square-foot shopping center, spoke in favor of the plan.
The remaining speakers criticized both the town board and the Huntington planning board for allowing the application, which called for a zone change and an amendment to the town’s Horizons 2020 Comprehensive Plan, to advance as far as the public hearing stage.
Lisa Bloomstein, of Dix Hills, who organized the “Stop the Villadom Mall” petition that has nearly 10,000 signatures, criticized the “lack of due diligence” by the planning board.
Many of the speakers made it clear that the town board should expect similar levels of opposition to any plan that Torkan submitted for the property in the future.
“You woke up a sleeping giant,” Hector Gavilla, of Dix Hills, said.
Supervisor Chad Lupinacci said during the meeting that the town board had cancelled the public hearing because they no longer had an application to consider.
“While the applicant may submit a new application in the future, they would need to start the entire process from the beginning, submitting a new plan to the town, having it reviewed by the planning board, which then would make a recommendation to the town board regarding the scheduling of a new public hearing,” Lupinacci said.
Although Torkan expressed his desire to submit a new proposal for the property to the town, planning department officials said a new application could take anywhere from two months to two years to reach the town board for a public hearing.
Of the residents who spoke last Thursday about Great Neck-based developer Villadom’s plans to construct a 486,380-square-foot shopping center on Jericho Turnpike in Elwood, nearly all voiced opposition to the plan. (Long Islander News photo/Connor Beach)
