The Vision Long Island (VLI) meeting on May 24 at the Hallock dealership site to discuss the AvalonBay proposed 400 - unit apartment complex ended with residents walking out and Eric Alexander, of VLI, saying this was the worse public meeting his group had ever held. From the first, he said, he noted the attitude of the crowd, wearing buttons saying Stop Avalon, and handing out literature. As a result, VLI changed its plans and instead of showing a presentation on the alternatives for the Hallock site they held an open forum.

Their aim was to have residents tell what they thought was most "horrendous" for the site. Residents said the most horrendous thing was AvalonBay Communities proposed project. Complicating the evening was the continued doubt of residents opposed to AvalonBay about the switched role of VLI from working for the town to working for Avalon.

As it turned out, during the meeting Mr. Alexander said it was true that they are working for Avalon in Yaphank, in Suffolk. The meeting was a struggle as Mr. Alexander and Ron Stein of VLI tried to extricate themselves from appearing biased.

At the meeting, a letter from Jack L. Libert, TOB Department of Planning Commissioner to Matthew Meng, president of the East Norwich Civic Association was available. It stated the crucial issue of the opposition to the meeting. It said, "It is my understanding that there is some confusion about the role of Vision Long Island in the AvalonBay proposal for the Hallock property. Several weeks ago representatives of the town met with you and other civic groups concerning the proposed project. A consultant from VLI and a representative of Avalon were also present. The meetings were held in contemplation of an informational public meeting (prior to the actual Town Board hearing on the case). The town engaged VLI - a well recognized independent planning firm - to plan and chair the informational meeting.

"After meeting with you and other community leaders, the town decided not to participate in the informational meeting. The town was concerned that residents might infer that as a sponsor of the meeting, the town was predisposed toward supporting the project. That is not the case. Since the town is not going to host or participate in the meeting, Vision Long Island's services were no longer required by the town. Vision Long Island and Avalon were advised of that fact. Vision Long Island was relieved of any further duties on this project.

"Avalon then decided to hold its own informational meeting. Since Vision Long Island was no longer a consultant to the town on this project, it is my understanding that Avalon enlisted the aid of Vision Long Island to conduct Avalon's meeting.

"I hope this clarifies the issue," concluded Commissioner Libert in his letter.

Unfortunately his information doesn't fit with Vision Long Island's, which explained it was released from working with the town for three months and will return to work on the visioning plan for the hamlet - and that they wanted to get over this issue before proceeding with their town visioning work.

At the meeting Rob Brusca asked if it was true that VLI was already working for AvalonBay in Yaphank and Mr. Alexander said yes, adding that it was in Suffolk County.

Mr. Alexander set out ground rules for the meeting, saying they wanted it to be a civil meeting. Listeners shouldn't call out but could applaud if they wanted to, he said. They wanted people to list their "horrors" at the sight - of which most turned out to be "AvalonBay apartments". They said there would be another meeting where they would answer all the questions asked. This newspaper asked for better parking figures, considering that on Long Island almost everyone over 16 owns and drives a car and that the studio apartments would most likely have two people and therefore two cars each. Another question was where would overflow parking be found - along Pine Hollow Road. Also there is a need for visitor parking.

Ron Stein said 12 years ago he lived on Summers Street in Oyster Bay but moved to Huntington. There, he said he felt stuck and powerless and out of that Vision Huntington was born to create a forum for people who lived in the community to say what they wanted. "In 1997 we created a dialog of what we want and not what we don't want," he said. That was the hope of VLI, to come away from the meeting with some ideas of what the community would like to see.

Mr. Stein said they were working pro bono on this project. He said, "We are not taking any money from the developer or the town. This is an opportunity to get what you want." He added, "It's not easy to feel all the anger and frustration you people feel - but - if we can get through that we can talk of what we want. We are going to be brutally objective." He added, avoid shouting, screaming and rah rahs. "You can applaud," he said.

People at the meeting could not get over the relationship between VLI and AvalonBay, especially since many of them had attended meetings where they were open and frank about issues only to find that the VLI people were now working with AvalonBay here and were working for them in Yaphank. In the end Mr. Stein said, "I'll let you decide at the end of two weeks - if you doubt our credibility we'll drop AvalonBay. We are a not-for-profit. We don't want to undermine our integrity. We plan to do the right thing. I didn't think that was an issue. We are not getting paid."

There were more objections from the audience. People objected to the flier that was sent out to Oyster Bay residents, and were concerned that East Norwich residents as well as residents from the surrounding communities were not notified of the meeting. As for the flier itself (the same as the ad that ran in the May 18 issue of this newspaper): it contained photographs that speakers said were used as scare tactics when they titled the ad "On May 24th, Learn More About The Alternatives For The Hallock Chevrolet Site."

Another objection was brought up by Jean Van Riper who asked Mr. Alexander if he was quoted accurately in the Oyster Bay Enterprise Pilot as saying they had to get through the AvalonBay issue first - before doing a hamlet visioning plan. He said "yes". She said the meeting advertised as talking about alertnatives for the site was "all smoke and mirrors and not relevant to the issues."

Mr. Alexander said they had data from AvalonBay and wanted questions from the public and that they would come back in 30 days with answers from AvalonBay.

Kyle Rabin, Friends of the Bay executive director said, "The premise of this meeting is flawed and biased. The application is on the table at town hall and now you are asking us to consider alternatives. It is ludicrous. We need a comprehensive visioning plan for the hamlet. VLI wants to build an AvalonBay. You are looking at it in the wrong way. You are entering in with the wrong view. This is high density development on steroids."

Ron Stein said, "I agree it is the tail wagging the dog."

Mr. Rabin said, "The quandary we have is that we are dealing with an application on the table. It's up to the developer and the town as to what happens. If we send AvalonBay packing we'll talk about alternatives then." There was applause from many of those attending.

Mr. Alexander pleaded - saying they [AvalonBay] need information to make a business decision.

A resident who has lived in Oyster Bay since 1952 said they never had such a turnout. "We used to meet in the church. We never needed you guys to represent us, I think we can do it by ourselves." He said that AvalonBay was here for one reason - greed.

Mr. Stein said, "If the town has a clear sense of what you want, that will take us far."

He turned to an easel with the word "HORRORS" on the top and asked again what they wanted to list. Those items would be answered by Avalon said Mr. Stein.

Former Oyster Bay Sewer District Commissioner David Layton said he had been looking at the statements fighting AvalonBay and said the Oyster Bay Sewer Plant can handle the waste water coming from the proposed AvalonBay. He said the figure quoted that the site could only support 85 units means that is all the current zoning allows. He said that with the current upgrade at the OBS Plant to tertiary treatment the water is cleaner than drinking water.

In a telephone interview, Gary Loesch of H2M, the engineers for the OBSD disagreed. He said since the Long Island Sound Study has been completed, the district has new parameters to follow. The old rules are out and a new perception is in.

Mr. Loesch expanded on his previous statement. He agreed that AvalonBay is being held to 85 units under current zoning and explained why. He said, "We did a capacity analysis and flow was allocated to all the developed and undeveloped parcels in the community. Because the sewer district is limited due to capacity since the LISS standards, even with the new plant upgrade we can only put a certain amount of nitrogen into the harbor, even though the water is crystal clear.

"As a result, the sewer district was concerned that if we started to grant everyone approval there would be properties of people who have been paying fees to the OBSD, all this time, and couldn't get connected to it. We looked at all those using the system and all the possible hook ups and looked at the average in each area so we can reserve capacity overall. If we did it on a first come first serve method, others would be precluded from using the sewer district."

As for Mr. Layton's comments, Mr. Loesch said at the time he was on the board they were looking at sewering Bayville, East Norwich and other areas but at that time there was no restriction as to capacity. The state was not concerned as long as it met their standards - "not so now that the LISS has been issued which puts us at 1.8 million gallons per day - with about 60 and 79 lbs. of nitrogen per day," said Mr. Loesch.

At the meeting Bill Burke said he didn't trust the Town of Oyster Bay to defend the community from the developer. He said, "Their legal defense puts 'poison pills' in their defense so they look like they are helping us."

Someone did call out that "HORRORS" were a storage yard; a body fender shop; a junk yard.

A woman said it was overdensity that was a horror. "Oyster Bay is single homes and we like it that way," she said.

Cat Colvin said, "Our horror is a three story and four story - 400 unit AvalonBay, not junk yards. The issue is AvalonBay why create a list of horrors. That's ridiculous! The 300 or 270 high density apartment house is our horror."

Tony Brovetto asked, "Is AvalonBay willing to change? Do they own the property, are they in control?" Another man said there are enough apartments in Oyster Bay. Arthur Major of Oyster Bay said, "If we wanted to live in Hicksville we would have moved to Hicksville. They want to turn this into a city."

Another speaker said the horror was the possible impact beyond this area. "What will stop people across the street and down the road from doing the same thing? What is being proposed will be the tipping point for the community."

Fran Leone said if the area is re-zoned it will set a precedent for big development. Rob Brusca said the BMW dealership across Pine Hollow Road could use the same new zoning AvalonBay is asking for creating a matching overdevelopment.

Harold Mitchell said traffic was his horror, that this area is a bottle-neck already.

Judith Barrett said, "I lived here through the sand pits, tractor trailors. Mr. Wang can do anything commercial he wants here. I would rather this pleasant apartment house than a commercial use where he doesn't have to ask for what he wants, but has a right."

Other points were brought out, and Jean Van Riper said to Ron Stein, "Mr. Alexander is right. We need to get through AvalonBay first. This is the issue we want to talk about. I refuse to play your game." At about that time, she and others began walking out. "It's over. You haven't answered one question," said the attorney, and a former president of the Oyster Bay Chamber of Commerce.

Matthew Meng, president of the East Norwich Civic Association walked over to Eric Alexander and presented him with a red suitcase and a boot, to send Avalon packing and to boot them out of town.

Anthony Fabbricante said, "This reminds me of what the Island Properties meeting was like 10 years ago." They asked residents what they wanted and what they got were rentals, rentals, rentals. (Please see Mr. Fabbricante's Letter to the Editor.)

The meeting went on with a few people still attending. One woman suggested, "Build the carousel here and not in our fine park. If they want a carousel have it here."

Marie Knight, president of the Oyster Bay Civic Association said, "This is a stacked audience." She said, "The OBCA will not allow another vote to be taken until the application is changed." She added items they have said they will offer such as a jitney to the train station three times in the morning and afternoon.

Another person answered that anything can be promised, but it doesn't mean it will happen.

Bob Martin spoke of the problems Robbie Hallock had at his dealership, saying he almost went bankrupt and credited Charles Wang for saving him from that.

The story isn't over. There is supposed to be another VLI meeting in a month, with the bills (for the chairs and refreshments) paid again, by AvalonBay.