Smart Talk
News and Views about Growth on Long Island
June 2004 - Vol. 2, Ed. 2
While we often decry the problems impacted and exacerbated by conventional development, it is equally important to consider the successes and failures of Smart Growth planning and land-use efforts. By sharing these news updates and reports, we become better equipped to make informed land-use decisions that meet Long Island's most pressing needs including housing, open space, transportation and economic development.
We welcome your feedback! If you would like to contribute to future issues of “Smart Talk” please e-mail us: info@visionlongisland.org.
Eric Alexander, Director
Katheryn Laible, Communications Director
TABLE OF CONTENTS...
VLI NEWS & EVENTS
June 18 th – Third Annual Smart Growth Awards
ACTION ALERT!!
Review Huntington's Vision Statement
Special Sessions on the North Shore Heritage Area
Support Important State Smart Growth Legislation
TOWN NEWS
North Hempstead: Carle Place Citizens Want No More
Brookhaven: Improving Middle Island's Artist Lake
LONG ISLAND NEWS
Steve Levy Veto's Affordable Housing Plan, Submits Alternative
Suffolk County Legislation Streamlines Open Space and Farm Legislation
Third Track Coalition Fights for a Long Island Railroad
2.5 Million for Safer Streets
AROUND THE NATION
Examining the Role of Small Business in Brownfields
Writer
Notes Groundswell of Awareness for Better Neighborhood Design
Mixed-Use Neighborhoods Decrease Risk of Obesity
Affordable Housing One of Voters' Top Concerns
Study Reports Wal-Mart's Expansion Supported By Taxpayer Money
Connecticut: Southbury's Heritage Village Welcomes Mixed-Use Center
Louisiana: Ascension Parish Team Impressed by Lafayette's Traditional
Neighborhood Development
Michigan: Local Group Opposes Rochester Hills Mixed-Use Complex
New Jersey: $1 Billion Plan for Pennsauken Waterfront Redevelopment Announced
New York: Study Examines Reasons for Housing Vacancy Jump in Erie, Niagara
Counties
North Carolina: Asheville's "Gerber Village:" No Cars Required
Oregon: Historic Land Use Law Up for Review in Oregon
Tennessee: Revival of Traditional Courthouse Square
Washington D.C.: Greater Washington's Open Space in Jeopardy as Developers
Bulldoze Up to 43 Square Miles Daily
AND BEYOND...
Second Generation Traffic Calming Breaks the Rules
Ontario
Group Steps Up Campaign to Advance Smart Growth
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VLI NEWS & EVENTS
Third Annual Smart Growth Awards:
June 18th , 11:30AM at the Crest Hollow
Join Vision Long Island in honoring individuals, organizations and projects embracing principles of Smart Growth and celebrating their efforts to improve the quality of life and land-use Island-wide.
Sponsorship packages are still available!
See http://www.visionhuntington.org/2004AwardsRegistrationForm.htm for registration forms. For more details, visit www.visionlongisland.org
ACTION ALERTS!!!
Review Huntington's Vision Statement
Back in March, you and your neighbors were given a unique and powerful opportunity to influence future growth and development in the Town of Huntington. Check out this link to see what people said: http://town.huntington.ny.us/permit_pics/385.pdf
The process is not over!! The Town of Huntington is giving YOU an unprecedented opportunity to see if they heard right and offer comments!! Spread the word!!
For dates and times, visit http://www.visionhuntington.org/visionstatementreview.htm
Special Sessions on the North Shore Heritage Area
The New York State Commission on the North Shore Heritage Area Management Plan is hosting it's next round of special sessions June 14 th and 15th. Find out more at http://www.visionhuntington.org/nshalert.htm
Support Important State Smart Growth Legislation
One of the most important steps toward a built environment that meets our needs is to revise the rules and regulations to promote, rather than complicate, efforts by communities to plan and use resources effectively.
Increasing numbers of New York State Legislators are trying to do this. The Smart Growth Public Infrastructure Policy Act (s.6255), sponsored by Senator Kenneth LaValle would help focus development on maintaining and improving the areas already built rather than favoring the costly infrastructure investments needed to develop our remaining open spaces. It would also help ensure that the efforts of communities investing in thoughtful planning are not in vain.
Help advance this importance legislation! Visit http://www.visionhuntington.org/sglegalert.htm for details.
TOWN NEWS
North Hempstead: Carle Place Citizens Want No More
On June 11th, Newsday reported on open sessions hosted by the Town of North Hempstead for residents to express their desires for the 7.8-acre site, at 234 Glen Cove Rd. near Westbury Avenue currently being used for BOCES adult educational programs.
Citizens came out in force, protesting big box stores, affordable housing, and children. Their main concerns? Traffic, Taxes and Overcrowded Schools. What did they seem to want? Anything that wouldn't attract more people. See the article at: http://www.newsday.com/news/printedition/longisland/ny-licarl113845431jun11,0,4027750.story?coll=ny-linews-print
Brookhaven: Helping Artist Lake
Across from K-Mart in Middle Island, Artist Lake provides a rare respite from the sprawl that characterizes most of NYS Route 25. Now, thanks to the hard work of community members and local government officials, the public entrance to this “kettle hole lake” is being improved to make it more attractive and user friendly.
Learn more about what's happening at the Middle Country Road Renaissance Project website: http://www.middlecountryrdproject.org/index.html
LONG ISLAND NEWS
Levy Veto's Affordable Housing Plan, Submits Alternative
Newsday reported on May 28th that Suffolk County Executive, Steve Levy recently vetoed affordable housing legislation which would require that any new sewage infrastructure be contingent on 15% of the new development being “affordable”. Levy cited questionable legality and claimed that the law failed to provide adequate incentives.
In its place, Levy offered a version he feels would better complement existing County incentives: Rather than requiring developers to sell a portion of their homes to people earning 80% of the median income ($68,240 for a family of four), Levy's version would enable the sale of half the properties in a development to those who earn up to 120%. The legislation would also raise the maximum allowed rent for units, include mixed-use and mixed-income developments, and free up $15 million dollars in county capital funds to pay for water and sewer hookups.
See the Newsday article at http://www.newsday.com/mynews/ny-lisuff283821932may28,0,5818697.story
Suffolk County Legislation Streamlines Open Space and Farm Preservation
The Long Island Pine Barrens Society recently wrote to thank everyone who attended meetings and spoke up in support of IR-1517 & IR-1338:
Thanks to your efforts, the Society writes, “The Suffolk County Legislature has unanimously approved legislation to streamline the preservation of open space and farmland. This action follow reorganization of the County's Real Estate Division by the Levy Administration to accelerate land purchased from hundreds to thousands of acres per year.”
Third Track Coalition Fights for a Long Island Railroad
The Floral Park Dispatch recently reported that the Tri-State Transportation Campaign has rallied a broad range of activists and interest groups to advance the Long Island Rail Road's $300M Main Line Corridor Improvement Project, which would add a third track to the Long Island Railroad.
See http://www.visionhuntington.org/3rdtrackcoalition.htm for more.
2.5 Million for Safer Streets
The Long Island Business News “Flash Report” recently noted that, thanks to the Local Safe Streets and Traffic Calming Program, Long Island towns and villages are receiving a total of $2.7 million in funding for local pedestrian and bicycle safety improvements.
AROUND THE NATION*
Examining the Role of Small Business in Brownfields
A new study by Carol S. Armstrong examines how and why small businesses are often disengaged from the Brownfields process, offering suggestions to change current approaches that often foster antagonistic relationships between government and small business.
The study aims to help involve small businesses as the key stakeholders they are in helping clean up contaminated areas and strengthen local economies
Find out more about the study at http://www.sba.gov/advo/research/rs238.pdf
Writer
Notes Groundswell of Awareness for Better Neighborhood Design
"Throughout most of the U.S., suburban
sprawl has created a nation that has been supersized beyond walking distance,"
states Time magazine writer Richard Lacayo, joining the everonger
public call for a better neighborhood design and quoting Columbia (Maryland)
Mayor Darwin Hindman -- an avid biker at 71 -- who says, "Everyone
is created to walk. But we have designed our streets to create barriers
to an obvious, efficient activity."
http://www.smartgrowth.org/news/article.asp?art=4119&state=52
Mixed-Use
Neighborhoods Decrease Risk of Obesity
Confirming last year's study by University
of Maryland's National Center for Smart Growth researcher Reid Ewing,
who found higher obesity rates in counties with sprawling rather than
compact development, a new Georgia Institute of Technology in-depth study
of links between weight and the built environment in metro Atlanta, led
by University of British Columbia Associate Professor Lawrence D. Frank,
shows the relative risk of obesity increases 35 percent from the most
to the least mixed-use areas.
http://www.smartgrowth.org/news/article.asp?art=4103&state=52
Affordable
Housing One of Voters' Top Concerns
"Despite all of the other concerns America
faces, affordable housing ranks as voters' third greatest concern, just
behind health care and the economy" -- with 53, 49 and 45 percent
seeing these as big problems, respectively -- said National Association
of REALTORS (NAR) President Walt McDonald of Riverside, California, releasing
its 2004 National Housing Opportunity Pulse survey, which also found some
62 percent likely to vote this November for candidates who work to make
housing more affordable.
http://www.smartgrowth.org/news/article.asp?art=4104&state=52
Study
Reports Wal-Mart's Expansion Supported By Taxpayer Money
Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer, has
supported its expansion with taxpayer money in 35 states, some $624 million
going to 84 distribution centers and $383 million to 160 retail stores,
all documented in the landmark "Shopping For Subsidies" study,
by the Washington-based nonprofit Good Jobs First research group.
http://www.smartgrowth.org/news/article.asp?art=4105&state=52
CONNECTICUT
Southbury's Heritage Village Welcomes
Mixed-Use Center
Its old Bazaar buildings razed in 1998, the
Heritage Village neighborhood in Southbury, northern Fairfield County,
will now benefit instead from a new mixed-use Heritage Center, with the
Heritage Development Group implementing principles of Smart Growth.
http://www.smartgrowth.org/news/article.asp?art=4106&state=7
LOUISIANA
Ascension Parish Team Impressed by
Lafayette's Traditional Neighborhood Development
Concerned over his region's "dumb growth"
in recent years, Ascension Parish (county) President Ronnie Hughes took
Councilmen Jared "Burger" Beiriger and Kent Schexnaydre, Planning
and Development Director Tom Fancett and grant consultant Dara Ewin to
Lafayette, some 70 miles west, to see an example of "smart growth"
-- the state's first and not yet completed traditional neighborhood development
(TND), 256-acre River Ranch, acclaimed today, but not easy to launch.
http://www.smartgrowth.org/news/article.asp?art=4108&state=19
MICHIGAN
Local Group Opposes Rochester Hills
Mixed-Use Complex
Although the Rochester Hills City Council
gave initial approval to a planned $70 million mixed-use complex of 300
housing units and some commercial space on 28 acres near a key intersection
and planner Derek Delacourt pointed out that "(t)hese kinds of developments
help create a walkable atmosphere and provide the residents with small-scale
retail," local homeowners argue they moved to Rochester Hills --
about 20 miles north of central Detroit -- to escape congestion and oppose
the City Place project for its density and the prospective impact on traffic.
http://www.smartgrowth.org/news/article.asp?art=4110&state=23
NEW
JERSEY
$1 Billion Plan for Pennsauken Waterfront
Redevelopment Announced
Chosen from among 15 bidders to redevelop
seven miles of the mostly vacant and polluted Delaware River waterfront
in Pennsauken across from Philadelphia, North Carolina-based Cherokee
Investment Partners envisions 500,000 square feet of office, retail and
commercial space, and 2,650 homes, townhouses and condos in five clusters,
with Cherokee CEO Thomas Darden stressing the $1 billion plan "balances
conservation, development principles and smart growth."
http://www.smartgrowth.org/news/article.asp?art=4111&state=31
NEW
YORK
Study Examines Reasons for Housing
Vacancy Jump in Erie, Niagara Counties
Despite the nation's highest disparity rate
(3.89) between new construction and new households over the past decade
in the Buffalo area of Erie and Niagara counties, accompanied by the city's
10 percent household loss and 50 percent housing vacancy jump -- all documented
in a new Brookings Institution study of 74 cities -- a local builder,
Marrano/Marc Equity Corp. vice president Victor Martucci insists, "We
don't have sprawl in Erie County."
http://www.smartgrowth.org/news/article.asp?art=4112&state=33
NORTH
CAROLINA
Asheville's "Gerber Village:"
No Cars Required
"Gerber Village could be called the 'Anti-Atlanta',"
says The Asheville Citizen-Times in an editorial about this
$150 million project for the 38-acre south Asheville site of the former
Gerber baby food factory, where in three to five years about 1,500 residents
will find "almost every amenity without involving an automobile."
http://www.smartgrowth.org/news/article.asp?art=4113&state=34
OREGON
Historic Land Use Law Up for Review
in Oregon
Thanks to the state's pioneering land-use
law of 1973, its cities grow compactly, farmland and forests stretch unbroken
for miles, and coastlands and estuaries are protected, but over the years
"revisions, court decisions and exemptions" have made the law
almost "as complex as the tax code," and now, says a Salem Statesman
Journal editorial, "(j)ust as a milestone birthday prompts
people to re-evaluate their lives, Oregon's planning process needs a top-to-bottom
review."
http://www.smartgrowth.org/news/article.asp?art=4116&state=38
TENNESSEE
Revival of Traditional Courthouse
Square Taking Place in Tennessee
The traditional Southern courthouse square,
the activity hub of all 95 Tennessee county seats in the 18th and early
19th centuries, "is being revived as a center of commerce and a public
gathering place" throughout the region, reports Knight Ridder/Tribune
News Service writer Alison Miller, quoting University of Tennessee's
College of Architecture and Design Professor Marian Moffitt, who points
out that Tennessee courthouse squares were the result of planning.
http://www.smartgrowth.org/news/article.asp?art=4117&state=43
WASHINGTON,
D.C.
Greater Washington's Open Space in
Jeopardy as Developers Bulldoze Up to 43 Square Miles Daily
The developed acreage in the 3,000-square-mile
greater Washington region jumped from 12.2 to 17.8 percent from 1986 to
2000, and developers are still bulldozing 28-43 square miles (17,920-27,520
acres) each day, according to the joint Green Infrastructure Demonstration
Project study, prepared for release by the Metropolitan Washington Council
of Governments (COG) and the National Park Service.
http://www.smartgrowth.org/news/article.asp?art=4118&state=9
AND BEYOND*…
Second Generation Traffic Calming Breaks the Rules
In
an article for Salon, Linda Baker examines "second generation"
traffic calming, which is growing in popularity, particularly in Europe.
Rather than supporting ever more traffic controls, this type of calming
discourages more rules and encourages pedestrians, cyclists, and motorized
vehicles to share the same streetscape. British traffic consultant Ben
Hamilton-Baillie points out that when traffic lights, stop signs, and
other traffic controls are removed, drivers are forced to slow down, make
eye contact with pedestrians, cyclists and other drivers, and decide when
it is safe to proceed. In other words, drivers must think and react. "You
can see this is the way to break out of the pro-car, anti-car debate,"
says Hamilton-Baillie. "Because the shared approach very much accepts
the car as a vital useful component in cities that will remain with us
for some generations to come."
See the Salon article at: http://archive.salon.com/tech/feature/2004/05/20/traffic_design/
Ontario
Group Steps Up Campaign to Advance Smart Growth
Long alarmed by the forest and wetland loss
in southern Ontario, especially along Lake Ontario's 75-mile-long scenic
Bay of Quinte, Ontario Nature -- formed in 1931 as the Ontario Federation
of Naturalists -- is stepping up its campaign against sprawl, said Conservation
and Policy Coordinator Linda Pim, to advance "smart growth communities,
which are people, land and nature friendly."
http://www.smartgrowth.org/news/article.asp?art=4123&state=54
* Except where otherwise noted, National and International Smart Growth updates are provided by the US EPA Smart Growth Network.
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