Every year HUD publishes the area media income (AMI) for each county for household sizes ranging from 1-6 people.  This is used as a guideline for determining eligibility for certain affordable developments.  For example, a development may have a guideline that you can only apply if your income is less than 80% of AMI.  Different developments have different guidelines, sometimes with mixes that range form 50% of AMI up to 120% of AMI.

Bed and Breakfast Homestay– A building, originally built as, and which current principal use is as, a residence, converted into an establishment providing no more than four (4) rooms within such a house, with separate or shared bathrooms, for the overnight accommodation of travelers. The only food service shall be breakfast for overnight guests only.

Brownfields– abandoned properties, or facilities that may be contaminated.

C6 zoning-A particular kind of commercial zoning that allows, amongst other things, apartments above storefronts.

Cluster Housing– A program by which a developer concentrates housing in return for set-asides of forever green areas.  Often used to concentrate buildings along golf courses to ensure the area covered by the golf course is not built on.

Community Development Block Grant (CDBG)- a HUD program that provides grants for activities that must meet one of the following national objectives for the program: benefit low- and moderate-income persons, prevention or elimination of slums or blight, or address community development needs having a particular urgency because existing conditions pose a serious and immediate threat to the health or welfare of the community for which other funding is not available.

Community Development Agency (CDA)- Town of Huntington agency that administers affordable housing programs and HUD funding.  The CDA administers CDBG’s.

Columbia Terrace– a proposed affordable apartment building for veterans that is to be located near the train station in Huntington Station.

Comprehensive Plan– Towns must develop master plans for housing based on statistical need.

Consolidated Plan– Towns are mandated by HUD to plan for federal grants (CDBG’s), revising the plans every five years, with an annual performance report on how it has helped those with extremely low income.  Although towns must adopt the federal guidelines, they often don’t follow them.

Density Bonus– A program that allows builders to build more units than allowed by current zoning.  Usually granted for an increase in the number of affordable units.

Down Zoning– changing the zoning of an area to allow more units.

Fair Housing Act of 1966– Federal Law that prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, ethnicity, size of family, or the disabled in the rent or sale of housing.  Intent need not be demonstrated; if the result is discriminatory to protected classes, there is a violation.

Horizons 2020 – Comprehensive Master Plan established in 2008 by the Town of Huntington to establish criteria for potential future growth.

HUD– The Federal Housing and Urban Development Department, responsible for implementing and enforcing Federal housing law.

HUD ESG grant– Federal Emergency Solutions Grants focused on helping the homeless and shelters

HUD HOME grant- Grants to states and units of local government to implement local housing strategies designed to increase home ownership and affordable housing opportunities for low and very low-income Americans

HUD Section 8 – Housing that is subsidized by the Federal Government by use of a voucher.  Tenants pay 30% of gross income for rent.  HUD issues vouchers to help make up the difference between 30% of the tenant’s income and market rate. 

Huntington Housing Authority– Independent Agency (members appointed by Town of Huntington) that administrates the Section 8 housing vouchers, as well Gateway Gardens in Huntington Station and Millennium Hills in Melville.

Huntington Public Safety – This department has a Code Enforcement Division that is in charge of enforcing housing regulations.

Incorporated village– Within a town, an incorporated village has control of zoning, and may hold and restrict land in the name of the village.  In the Town of Huntington there are four incorporated villages:  Asharoken, Huntington Bay, Lloyd Harbor, and Northport.  Huntington village is NOT an incorporated village.

In perpetuity– a key phrase in creation of affordable housing.  If the affordable units are not created in perpetuity, then at the end of some period the owner can sell the housing at market rates.  Since the town cannot create land, the continued loss of affordable units to market rate sales would mean there is a need to perpetually create MORE affordable housing.

Lottery – When an affordable housing project is constructed applicants must complete an application form which is reviewed and evaluated by the developer.  Successful candidates are entered into a lottery for selection. Winning the lottery does not guarantee a home; the lottery winner still has to pass a credit check.

Matinecock Court Case – A decision by the Supreme Court that mandated the property on the Northwest corner of Pulaski and Elwood Roads, known as Matinecock Court, to be rezoned as multi- family housing.  It also required the town to allow multi-family housing in other parts of the town.  The case is officially known as Huntington Branch NAACP vs Town of Huntington, NY.  Established the principle that locating all multi-family housing in one section of town is discriminatory, violating the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution’s equal protection clause and Title VIII of the Civil Rights Act of 1968.

NIMBY– Not In My Backyard.  Phenomenon that surveys often show residents supporting affordable housing, but not in their immediate neighborhood.

Planning Board – Appointed board that advises the Town on sub-division and development projects

Planning Department– A town department of engineers and planners, led by a Director of Planning.  They make a professional review of proposed developments and present their findings to the Planning Board.

Setback line– The line that delineates the required minimum distance from any lot line and establishes the building envelope area within which the structure may be erected or placed.

SEQRA (pronounced SEE-kra)- New York’s State Environmental Quality Review Act requires all state and local governments to consider environmental impacts equally with social and economic factors before they take any actions on housing.  Planning departments can issue determinations of non-significance called Negative Declarations.  If there are any potential adverse effects, the town must hold a public hearing.  A report must be made on reduction or elimination of the impact, called the Final Generic Environmental Impact Statement (FGEIS).

Sewers – Huntington has its own Sewer District that services the homes and business in a section of the Town from the railroad station in Huntington Station through the Huntington Village to the Sewer Plant on Creek Road. There are individual properties in the southern part of Town (e.g. Walt Whitman Mall) that are connected to Suffolk County’s Southwest Sewer District.

Subdivision– The splitting of a piece of land into smaller ownership parcels.  Supervised by the Planning Board.

Suffolk County Water Authority – The largest water supplier in Suffolk County. There are other Water Districts in Huntington. They are Greenlawn WD, South Huntington WD and the Dix Hills WD.

Transit-oriented development–  A development that maximizes the amount of residential, business and leisure space within walking distance of public transport

Voucher– A document issued by HUD which can be paid to a landlord for rent.

Wetlands– Land areas that are inundated or saturated by surface or ground water at a frequency and duration sufficient to support, and that under normal circumstances do support, a prevalence of vegetation typically adapted for life in saturated soil conditions. Wetlands may include vernal surface waters and generally include creeks, swamps, marshes, bogs, and similar areas and can be fresh, brackish, or salt water to include tidal wetlands.

Zoning Board of Appeals – Appointed board that has the ability to grant relief when requested to properties that are or would be in violation of existing zoning requirements.