Board splits 3-2 on a Melville hearing; tax-cap override comes off the agenda
Councilwomen Lupinacci and Hebert voted no on scheduling a Cornerstone Melville hearing. A statutory tax-cap item was removed at workshop, though residents still asked the board not to pierce the cap.
The Town Board during the Aug. 11 meeting, near the Melville vote. Image: Town of Huntington livestream
Huntington, N.Y., Aug. 11, 2026 — The Town Board’s last regular meeting before the fall budget season opened with a Northport fire-protection hearing, ran a long public portion, and closed with a divided vote on whether to schedule a hearing on a Melville mixed-use project.
Before the hearings, the board adopted Resolution 2026-417, scheduling (nunc pro tunc) a hearing on an agreement with the Incorporated Village of Northport to furnish fire protection for Fire Protection District No. 1, and then held that hearing. Later it authorized the supervisor to execute the agreement, as Resolution 2026-422. ▶ Watch this moment · 0:35▶ Watch this moment · 1:25:10
Other hearings covered blighted properties at 13 Plymouth Road in Dix Hills, 11 Jesse Drive in Northport, 28 Derby Avenue in Huntington and 12 Turkey Lane in Cold Spring Harbor; a license and covenants for a retaining wall that a town official said encroaches on town land at 602 McKinley Terrace in Centerport; and stop-sign changes on Mill Lane in Huntington and on several streets in Commack. A resident who identified himself as the son of the owner of 13 Plymouth Road said he intended to fix the house; the supervisor suggested he speak with the town attorney’s office. When the blight resolution came up later, the board first voted to amend it to take 13 Plymouth Road off the attachment, then adopted the amended resolution, according to the captions. ▶ Watch this moment · 2:40▶ Watch this moment · 1:27:36
Sitting as the Board of Trustees, the board held hearings on a residential pier and floating-dock assembly at 271 Little Neck Road in Centerport, for applicants Patrick and Jeanne Tomlinson (the clerk’s notice in the captions said Janine). An engineer for the project said state and federal permits were in hand and that the design matched a neighboring dock. ▶ Watch this moment · 13:34
The tax-cap item is pulled, but speakers still address it
The official agenda had listed Resolution 2026-418 as an enactment of Local Law Introductory No. 26-2026, authorizing an override of the tax-levy limit. During the public portion, a speaker identified as Anna Finn said she had noticed the tax-cap item was taken off the agenda and spoke in opposition to an override anyway, citing high property taxes and asking the town to use reserves and look at spending first. At the end of the meeting, a council member said the town and the board “concurred in removing the tax cap agenda from the item today” and that members wanted to take a careful look at programs and fiscal effects. The clerk also said Resolution 2026-418 “was removed from the agenda at workshop.” ▶ Watch this moment · 23:26
A 3-2 vote to schedule the Cornerstone Melville hearing
The board at the Aug. 11 session. Image: Town of Huntington livestream
Resolution 2026-447 scheduled a public hearing on special-use permit application #MTCO-25-2, The Cornerstone Melville, for mixed-use development on the north side of Baylis Road, east of Maxess Road, Melville. The captions record the vote as adopted 3-2, with Councilwoman Brooke A. Lupinacci and Councilwoman Jennifer Hebert voting no. After the vote, a council member who had just voted said the no vote reflected concern that a “pause was not well defined,” and thanked Councilman Dr. Dave Bennardo in connection with a water advisory committee to study water quality and quantity and development in the Melville area, including a possible NYU Langone project. ▶ Watch this moment · 1:31:27
Other business
The captions record a call for opposed votes, with no opposition heard, on items that included designating October as Italian-American Heritage Month; a Learn-to-Play youth hockey agreement with the New York Islanders Hockey Club at the Clark Gillies Arena at Dix Hills Park; a Greenlawn-Centerport Historical Association pickle festival license for Sept. 19; a Heckscher Museum of Art café license; a Northport-Centerport Lions Club license for the Robert J. Bohaty Classic Car Show at Heckscher Park on Aug. 30; an extension of the Luminocity, Inc. Dino Safari at Walt Whitman Shops; and, on the consent calendar, an interim settlement agreement with the Long Island Power Authority and other previously published items from 2026-427 through 2026-452, excluding items already voted separately. ▶ Watch this moment · 1:24:49▶ Watch this moment · 1:25:30▶ Watch this moment · 1:29:04
The board also voted to add a late-starter resolution, numbered 2026-452, authorizing an intermunicipal agreement with the South Huntington Union Free School District for the purchase and installation of a traffic-signal device, with a budget amendment. Councilman Bennardo sponsored it; a speaker from the dais thanked Scott Spittle. The captions record it going on the consent calendar, which was then adopted with no opposition heard. ▶ Watch this moment · 1:35:03
Drawn from the official Aug. 11 agenda, video index and captions, reviewed Nov. 10, 2026. Auto-captions can misspell names; official board names are from the town’s Town Board page. Watch the full meeting.
