Smart Talk

News and Views about Growth on Long Island

July 2004 -- Vol. 2, Ed. 3

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Back to Home

CONTENTS...

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

EDITORS' NOTE

Envisioning Smart Solutions to Long Island's Housing Crisis

Housing advocates, builders, residents and government officials are actively seeking ways to effectively provide affordable housing. Even our environmentalist friends are starting to note how habitat loss is a primary factor in the decline of Long Island's young, educated population.

Long Island is desperate for housing that adequately serves our people and our economies. Especially homes in complete communities that offer safe access to walking, biking and public transportation helping us cut the cost of living -- and the size of our waistlines -- while giving our air, water and congested road ways a break.

Does Smart Growth offer ways to improve the range and quality of our housing stock? Good ones. Vision Long Island is looking forward to helping Long Island implement them through new initiatives that will help bridge the chasm between housing advocates and residents, while providing tools that municipalities can use.

We are also pleased to report that Suffolk County's Worksforce Housing Commission, is gaining ground. We are grateful for the County's effort, and hope Nassau will soon follow suit. Vision Long Island is a member of the Commission, which was created by County Executive Steve Levy. It met bi-weekly for four months, and has so far succeeded in:

• Creating a multi-stakeholder task force that worked with the County and municipalities to identify 250 sites that could potentially offer affordable housing.

• Passing ground-breaking legislation that offers over $15 million in tools and incentives for builders and municipalities to incorporate affordable housing in developments.

Of course, the best tool is information. By sharing these news updates and reports, we all become better equipped to make informed land-use decisions that meet our most pressing needs including housing, open space, transportation and economic development.

We welcome your input! If you would like to comment or contribute to future issues of “Smart Talk” please e-mail us: info@visionlongisland.org .

Eric Alexander, Director

Katheryn Laible, Communications Director

Back to Contents

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

VLI NEWS & EVENTS

2004 Smart Growth Awards: A Great Success!

Thank you to all who joined us in honoring individuals, organizations and projects embracing Smart Growth principles, improving the quality of life and land-use Island-wide.

The event was a great success. Over 300 guests attended. Ten project and two leadership awards were given. Check our website for images from the event and the soon-to-be-available 2004 Awards Journal, which provides details of our honorees: http://www.visionlongisland.org

Back to Contents

ACTION ALERTS!!!

Urge Congress to Fully Fund Section 8 Vouchers

The Nassau-Suffolk Coalition for the Homeless wants you to urge Congress to support funding the full cost of all existing Section 8 vouchers in the FY 2005 Veterans, HUD and Independent Agencies Appropriations bill. The current Administration is proposing to cut the Section 8 rental assistance program by $1.6 billion in FY 2005. It's also calling for block-granting the Section 8 program, giving housing authorities greater discretion in determining who is served and how much rent is paid. In 2005 alone, this could result in 150,000 families with 280,000 children losing assistance. Take action at: http://capwiz.com/cdf/mail/oneclick_compose/?alertid=6130906

New Forum to Generate Energy

The Long Island Neighborhood Network recently let us know that Renewable Energy Long Island (RELI) has launched a new message forum where Long Islanders can discuss ways to advance clean, renewable energy. Check it out: http://www.renewableenergylongisland.org/forums/index.php

Help Wanted: Work for the South Shore Estuary Reserve

The National Heritage Trust is seeking a qualified individual who will facilitate implementation of the actions recommended in the Comprehensive Management Plan for Long Island's South Shore Estuary Reserve. The pupose of this plan is to reduce non-point pollution, to create a "By-Way" for people to enjoy and to protect local habitats. Learn more at: http://www.estuary.cog.ny.us/employmentopps.htm

Back to Contents

TOWN NEWS

BROOKHAVEN

Bulldozers Stopped

The Longwood Alliance wants you to know that they have gone to court to fight a building permit that was given prematurely by the Town of Brookhaven to Coram Equities LLC. This permit allowed the applicant to clear 9 acres of environmentally sensitive property before the court issued its decision on the propriety of a Planning Board decision. For more information, see: http://www.middlecountryrdproject.org/Bulldozersstopped.html

GREENPORT

Mayor Sees Problem

Clifford Sondock of the Land Use Institute recently noted that Greenport Mayor David Kapell has highlighted what he sees as a fundamental and systemic flaw in Long Island land use regulation: 110 local zoning jurisdictions, each of which impacts surrounding jurisdictions. He believes this inflates housing prices while hurting the economy and individual property rights, which he sees as sacrificed to the whims of local factions. His solution? Fewer and larger zoning jurisdictions.

SOUTHOLD

Affordable Housing Legislation Passed

The Town of Southold recently passed legislation that promotes permanently affordable hamlet-based housing, crafted with the input of residents, planners and housing experts.

Back to Contents

LONG ISLAND NEWS

Long Island Boasts New York's Deadliest Roads

The Tri-State Transportation Campaign has turned its gaze on Long Island and found the deadliest roads New York State has to offer. Listed from worst to still really, really bad: Route 25 in Suffolk County, Sunrise Highway in Suffolk, the Long Island Expressway in Suffolk and Route 25A in Suffolk. Fifth on the Top 20 list of New York's deadliest roads was Hempstead Turnpike in Nassau County, where 34 people died between 1998-2002. Check out Newsday's report at: http://www.newsday.com/news/local/longisland/ny-liroad083884266jul08,0,4696832.column?coll=ny-limi nute-headlines

Also, visit the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's site on the health effects of sprawl for a walkability checklist you can use: http://www.rwjf.org/news/featureDetail.jsp?id=83&contentGroup=videos

Then take the NYS Department of Transportation's survey that asks about walking and bicycling conditions in your area: http://www.walkbikeli.com/default.asp

Long Islanders Offer a New Direction to NYS DOT

Over 100 people from around the region turned out for a special meeting of the NYS Department of Transportation's new “Advisory Panel on Transportation Policy for 2025”. They called for better coordination between agencies, updated modes of thinking within those agencies, and roads that are safe to walk on. See the full article at http://www.visionhuntington.org/newdirectiondot.htm

Housing Bill Rejected by State Senate

Newsday recently reported that the Long Island Workforce Housing Incentive Program Act, sponsored by NYS Senator Michael Balboni was recently overturned by the Senate. Had it passed, the act would have required that one in every ten homes on Long Island be affordable. An identical bill passed in the Assembly. A primary concern voiced by Senators was that the law would undermine the “Home Rule” of Towns and Villages, who hold the power to govern zoning on Long Island. Proponents of the bill fear that without the rule, Long Island's workforce will never get a home. Check out the article at: http://www.newsday.com/mynews/ny-lihome033880846jul04,0,449335.story

Jim Morgo to Head New Suffolk County Economic Development and Workforce Housing Department

Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy recently announced sweeping changes to the County's Economic Development Department, which is now the Suffolk County Economic Development and Workforce Housing Department. Long Island's most prominent affordable housing leader, Jim Morgo, has been appointed as its commissioner. Levy emphasized that the Department's focus of attracting and retaining new businesses will not be changing, but rather, will be expanding to address the "brain drain" marked by the exodus of Long Island's talented young to areas with more attractive housing alternatives.

Counties Seek to Update Regional Planning Board

Newsday recently reported that Nassau County Executive Tom Suozzi and Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy have a plan for a new and improved Long Island Regional Planning Board. They look to increase the number of non-governmental voting members from 6 to 10 and to focus the group on Long Island's hottest issues.

Eric Alexander, director of VLI, was quoted: "Until now, he said, ‘they've been rooted in advising Long Island in conventional suburban development' rather than encouraging walkable mixed-use communities. 'We need some new thinking to move us forward.' ”

See the full article at http://www.newsday.com/mynews/ny-liregi223901684jul22,0,3927337.story

News 12 Focuses on Main Street Makeovers

From News 12: “ The bright lights of "downtown" seem to be disappearing on Long Island. Malls and big box stores are making business increasingly difficult for the Island's "mom and pop" stores. News 12 Long Island's Bill Mooney examines the decline of Main Street Long Island in Part I of his Focus 12 series.” VLI provided background information for these articles. See them at http://www.news12.com/LI/topstories/article?id=115372

The Clean Energy Leadership Tasks Force Meets Again

The latest meeting of the Clean Energy Leadership Task Force was held June 25, 2004 at the Town of Oyster Bay's Highway Department of Public Works in the War Room. Primary topics included financial incentives available to municipalities for energy efficiency projects in buildings and fleet improvements, and specific suggestions as to how municipalities can implement the appropriate process and actions within their own specific structure. Learn more about the Task Force at: http://neighborhood-network.org/energy/taskforce.htm

Freespace for Long Island's Youth

After two years of intense organizing and endless fund raising, the kids of Freespace are getting ready to open the doors of a dream: a multi-purpose, youth-run community center on Long Island. The lease on a 2500 sq. ft. space in Huntington Station is being negotiated.

As Kevin Van Meter, Executive Director writes: “ Freespace is a unique organization as it is inspired by the ceaseless creative effort of youth and young adults on Long Island to improve their communities, communicate with others and better themselves through cooperative projects” Check them out at http://www.lifreespace.org

Back to Contents

NATIONAL NEWS*

Lifestyle Centers: More Than Just Shopping

CBS MarketWatch recently reported on an emerging trend in retail that is blowing malls and strip centers away. “Lifestyle Centers” are much smaller than the average mall, in fact, great care is taken to ensure that everything is at a decidedly human scale. The focus however, is much broader. Looking beyond standard mall shops and fast food fare, Lifestyle Centers offer decent restaurants in addition to fashion and a broad range of everything else. Increasingly, they're even including places to live. Check out the article at http://aolpf5.marketwatch.com/news/story.asp?guid=%7B1C73CCD4%2D9788%2D470B%2DAB8E%2DC0544C547C42%7D&siteid=aolpf&dist=special

Report Outlines How Smart Growth Reduces Energy Consumption
"By efficiently locating development, smarter growth land use policies and practices offer a viable way to reduce U.S. energy consumption," states the Funders' Network for Smart Growth and Livable Communities in its "Energy and Smart Growth: It's about How and Where We Build" paper -- the 15th in a series that translates the impact of sprawl and urban disinvestment into various community and environmental risks -- stressing, "Heightened concern about foreign oil dependence, climate change, and other ill effects of fossil fuel usage makes the energy-smart growth collaboration especially important."
http://www.smartgrowth.org/news/article.asp?art=4180&state=52

ALABAMA
Subdivision Moratorium, More HOV Lanes Planned to Ease Shelby County's Growth Pressure
As development pressures and traffic congestion mount on Birmingham metro's southern edges, the most affected Shelby County residents are gathering petition signatures for a zoning ballot, its Planning Commission is advising an interim subdivision moratorium, and the Metropolitan Planning Organization is pushing for extension of the planned High Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) lanes along eight miles of I-65 -- between Pelham and Alabaster -- another four miles south to the county's airport.
http://www.smartgrowth.org/news/article.asp?art=4181&state=1

LOUISIANA
S.G. Institute Report Advises Revision of East Baton Rouge Code to Align With Long-Term Land Use Code
"As it is now, smart growth projects are hard to do in Baton Rouge," but the Plan Baton Rouge's downtown vision is "a shining example" of how to create mixed-use, high-density, pedestrian-friendly neighborhoods with varied housing, says an audit report by the national Smart Growth Leadership Institute, recommending thorough revision of the East Baton Rouge Parish (county) Unified Development Code (UDC) to align it with the parish's long-term land-use Horizon Plan.
http://www.smartgrowth.org/news/article.asp?art=4187&state=19

MARYLAND

Glendening Credits Citizen Advocacy and Community Groups for Making Smart Growth a Priority Issue
"Smart Growth is becoming 'THE' issue in state and local politics and it is the citizen advocacy and community groups that are bringing it to the forefront and keeping it there!" said Smart Growth Institute President, former Maryland Governor Parris N. Glendening in a speech to some 200 officials, activists and business leaders gathered by Plan Baton Rouge and Forum 35 at the city's Old State Capitol.
http://www.smartgrowth.org/news/article.asp?art=4188&state=19

MASSACHUSETTS
Editorial Urges "Smart and Generous Investment" in Land Protection
For 10 years before Republican Governor Mitt Romney took office in 2003, his party predecessors spent an average of $53 million a year to protect land for recreation, watershed well-being, and wildlife habitat, but he slashed the $70 million already authorized by Governor Jane Swift to $36 million and allowed just $18 million for this year, says a Boston Globe editorial, stressing that although officials "have managed to multiply that through the leveraging of other funds," his next year's spending should challenge the current intense development pressure, especially in southeastern Massachusetts.
http://www.smartgrowth.org/news/article.asp?art=4189&state=22

MINNESOTA
Minneapolis' Hiawatha Light-Rail Line Debuts with 93,000 Fare-Paying Riders
With some 93,000 fare-paying passengers during its first week, the eight-mile Hiawatha light-rail line between downtown Minneapolis and Fort Snelling, just northeast of the international airport, exceeded Metro Transit projections by almost 70 percent, meeting Metropolitan Council Chairman Peter Bell's initial criteria for success.
http://www.smartgrowth.org/news/article.asp?art=4190&state=24

OHIO

Cleveland Could Save $66M by Renovating, Not Replacing, Historic Schools

Under its 2002 Master Plan, the Cleveland Municipal School District wants to demolish and replace 23 schools eligible for the National Register of Historic Places, even though their rehabilitation would save the Ohio School Facilities Commission (OSFC) more than $66 million, while providing up to 1,900 more local jobs, writes Cleveland Restoration Society executive director Kathleen H. Crowther in a Plain Dealer column entitled, "Scrapping old schools is an expensive mistake."
http://www.smartgrowth.org/news/article.asp?art=4192&state=36

WASHINGTON STATE
Anti-Sprawl Groups Appeal Whatcom County's Land Use Plan
Since Washington state law requires five-acre minimum residential lots in rural areas and quarter-acre maximum lots in urban or growth-designated areas, 1000 Friends of Washington and the local Pro-Whatcom group have appealed the recent update of Whatcom County's rural land-use plan as inviting sprawl, because it maintains zoning for too many homes on the outskirts but too few in cities.
http://www.smartgrowth.org/news/article.asp?art=4193&state=48

WISCONSIN
Brown County Comprehensive Plan Focuses on Quality of Life
Drafted for two years under the state's Smart Growth guidelines, with broad community participation and all stakeholders' input, the 20-year Brown County Comprehensive Plan went back to the public for a final tune-up in a two-month review and hearing process, with Planning Commission Director Chuck Lamine calling it both an environmental and an economic development document sharply focused on quality of life.
http://www.smartgrowth.org/news/article.asp?art=4194&state=50

Back to Contents

INTERNATIONAL NEWS*

CANADA
Edmonton Discusses Future Growth at "Shifting Gears" Vision Conference
A model of sound suburban design in the 1950s and 1960s, with schools in walkable centers of mixed-use communities, Edmonton (Alberta) must remain creative and adaptable "to new ways of dealing with things" as its population increases from some 980,000 to almost 1.2 million by 2020, said Edmonton Transit System Advisory Board official Jim Guthrie at the city's Shifting Gears vision conference, calling wider transit use crucial to mitigate sprawl-related traffic, pollution and health threats.
http://www.smartgrowth.org/news/article.asp?art=4195&state=54

NEW ZEALAND
Portland Planner Shares Regional Growth Strategy with Auckland Audience
In efforts to increase the efficiency of its five-year-old Regional Growth Strategy, the Auckland Regional Council (ARC) gathered area officials, planners, architects, academics and students for a presentation by Portland, Oregon, planner Steven Ames, who told them that in the past 30 years, "Portland literally transformed itself from a city with a dying urban core into a model of urban redevelopment, garnering an international reputation as a leader in mass transit, smart growth and urban livability."
http://www.smartgrowth.org/news/article.asp?art=4196&state=54

* Special thanks to Smart Growth Online who, except where otherwise noted, provides the National and International Smart Growth updates.

For more information about Vision Long Island, please visit http://www.visionlongisland.org or contact us at:

Vision Long Island

24 Woodbine Ave. Suite One

Northport, NY 11768

(631) 261-0242 Fax: (631) 754-4452

info@visionlongisland.org

CONTENTS...

EDITORS' NOTE

VLI NEWS & EVENTS

ACTION ALERT!!

TOWN NEWS

LONG ISLAND NEWS

NATIONAL NEWS

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

VLI NEWS & EVENTS

2004 Smart Growth Awards: A Great Success!

ACTION ALERTS!!!

Help Wanted: Work for the South Shore Estuary Reserve

BROOKHAVEN

Bulldozers Stopped

GREENPORT

Mayor Sees Problem

SOUTHOLD

Affordable Housing Legislation Passed

LONG ISLAND NEWS

Housing Bill Rejected by State Senate

Jim Morgo to Head New Suffolk County Economic Development and Workforce Housing Department

Counties Seek to Update Regional Planning Board

Freespace for Long Island's Youth

Lifestyle Centers: More Than Just Shopping

INTERNATIONAL NEWS*

Back to Contents Home