2003 Smart Growth Summit

"Making Smart Growth Work"

Friday, November 21st from 8:00AM - 4:00PM

Good afternoon, and welcome, once again. Our thanks, again, to County Executive-elect Steve Levy for such a wonderful, and hopeful speech.

Who We Are, What We Do

First, just a quick bit about what Vision Long Island is for those of you who don't know. Vision is a 501(c)3 not-for-profit organization focusing on Smart Growth – aka New Urbanism, managed growth, good sustainable planning, you name it -- for Long Island. Even though some of us have been involved in land use issues for many years, we began humbly as Vision Huntington in 1997 – a ragtag group of community residents that basically said we've had enough of bad development, and decided to be proactive in doing something about it by researching successful alternative models from here around the country. Since then we've evolved into full-time organization and a region-wide coalition of diverse stakeholders focusing basically on four broad functions:

•  Smart Growth Education and Training for Municipalities, Developers, Community Groups

•  Community Visioning and Community Process (Charrette) Planning & Execution

•  Design and Technical Assistance

•  Convening Regional Leadership Around the Issues of Smart Growth (which is what we're doing here today.)

Looking Back to Last year

At last year's first Smart Growth Summit event, we focused on creating a general understanding of what Smart Growth is. We talked about how the fundamental land use process is stacked against good land use and geared to creating more and more urban sprawl. We discussed the individual causes of urban sprawl and how many of the causes are institutionalized. We acknowledged that for most of us – planners, community leaders, developers, and municipal officials – the land use process was, and is, very broken.

We talked about the critical nature of effective proactive community involvement throughout the land use process. About how many great plans have, and will continue to sit on planning department shelves because of poorly orchestrated community involvement. That few so-called community process events have truly properly involved the community, and that this requires a very different and expert set of skills which few planning entities are, at this point, qualified to deliver.

We ended by challenging staff and elected leaders to view all development through the lens of smart development. Ask if the project is compact, will it mix uses, will it damage the downtown, will it enhance the community? We also asked elected leaders to do more than give lip service to Smart Growth land use. We need a real broad commitment to overhauling the land use process if we're going to prevent Long Island from becoming the worst of Queens in short order. Enough of the superficial treatment. We need to get very serious.

Taking Stock (some of the wins)

Let me warn you. I don't know how many of you out there are football fans. And perhaps given the respective seasons thus far of the Jets and Giants this isn't a good idea, but I'm going to frame some of these concepts using some football analogies. My apologies to those of you who don't like the game.

So I'd like to briefly take stock of where we are today; how far we've gone this past year in terms of improving land use. As we demonstrated at our Smart Growth Awards event earlier this year, we've made some modest gains.

Undoubtedly, the environment has been the shining star player, particularly through open space bond referenda. Most particularly in Suffolk County, Brookhaven, Huntington, and the East End Towns have accomplished major victories toward the purchase of important parcels for preservation. Congratulations to them: important successes, most definitely.  

Mixed use projects and downtown revitalization efforts have seen some modest victories particularly with the approval of apartments over stores, as we've seen in Islip, Brookhaven, Huntington, and the new codes in Rockville Centre, and general downtown aesthetic improvements continue throughout Long Island.

Affordable and mixed-income housing has seen isolated success in Islip, Huntington, Brookhaven, and Hempstead.  

Legislation and government success has been inching forward, and in one case lurching forward – the New York State Brownfield legislation which provides one of the great opportunities to revitalize distressed brownfield sites as discussed in our morning workshop. More in the “inching” category, the Suffolk County Smart Growth Task Force has submitted its Smart Growth recommendation to the Legislature, and land legislation is in process for an Affordable Housing Trust Fund. Nassau County's HUB study is moving forward, along with the creation of its Planning Federation that will create a liaison between the County and the various municipalities -- a great idea.

Very importantly, the Towns of Islip, Brookhaven, and Huntington are pressing forward with various community processes leading to major overhauls of codes and regulations.

Several new proposals for mixed-use town centers have been made, including Orchard Park in Huntington, Heartland (a new city) in Brentwood, and new proposed hamlet centers in Mastic-Shirley, Brookhaven.

There are other successes as well, and forgive me for not listing them all.  

Yet the Problems Continue

Good wins, certainly, but the problems and obstacles and bad stuff, unfortunately, are still dominating the game. So before we pat ourselves on the back, let's be reminded that the vast majority of proposals continue to be in the conventional urban-sprawl-enhancing form. We continue to build large and small placeless strip centers, including siting big-box stores and category-killers within the primary market areas of the downtowns we're seeking to protect. We continue to permit chain and convenient stores and gas stations to be built without regard to urban form or architecture or their impacts on the community. We continue to approve disconnected, cul-de-sac, and single income/single age, and, often, gated subdivisions – which we already have so many of -- instead of life-cycle, pedestrian-friendly, interconnected neighborhoods. Most often, what's being built is in conformance to what's been zoned.

Historic preservation remains an uphill battle, with few resources to preserve key properties and sites. Development times – even for good projects – continue to be punitively long and expensive (average time is seven years). Communities have been slow to adopt the new Uniform Building Codes that would permit greater flexibility in downtowns – codes that have finally become available to us after years of hard work.

In terms of streets, road widening efforts and conventional street construction   outpace better traffic-flow management, traffic calming, attractive streetscapes and pedestrian safety efforts. Sadly, pedestrian road deaths remain a significant percentage of total auto-related fatalities according to a recent Newsday report.

On the housing front, mixed income, workforce, diverse housing remains enormously difficult, despite the public recognition by all municipals leaders of its importance. Perceived school district impacts, myths in the communities that affordable housing must negatively affect property values, and lack of sewerage and infrastructure are major inhibitors. Simply put, there is just not enough affordable housing being built to meet Long Island's needs. Not even close. We need tens of thousands of units, and we are building, at best, hundreds. We're losing the game big time on the housing front.

Density – as we heard from comments this morning – is a frightening concept both to residents and elected leaders alike. There seems (finally) to be acceptance for two-and-a-half story construction in downtown areas -- a modest step forward because we can't continue to direct all our housing needed for our youth and seniors to new, land-consumptive subdivisions. But there are places that higher density construction can also work. In the right places – Glen Cove, Great Neck, Hempstead, Freeport – we're seeing that higher density works well. We're being too quick to throw out this tool where's it appropriate.

And (perhaps most of all) we're still not thinking regionally, even when it's clear that transportation, environment, economic development, and housing issues are very much regional in nature. We're not playing as a team, despite some of the hard work of those such as planner Lee Koppelman, economist Pearl Kamer, the Long Island Association, Newsday and other advocates for regionalism.

The Bottom Line

The upshot is that we're gaining in small, notable areas, but we're not scoring big. We're spending far too much time on defense. While we're most successful at preserving open space, we're creating more urban sprawl, burning up more undeveloped and re-developable land at a far greater pace than we're preserving it. Frankly, we're still overmatched by the relentless adversary of conventional sprawl. In short, we're losing badly.

Incidentally, there needs to be a flip side to protecting open space and the un-built environment: that is the protecting and improving the built environment, and creating destinations for development to go; to provide homes for our youth and seniors. The irony, as noted planner Andres Duany is fond of pointing out, is that humans are now becoming the endangered species.

So we need to change our strategy and counter placeless, high-taxing urban sprawl. Preserve open space, absolutely. Simultaneously, however, with the possible exception of a few isolated special districts for airports, resource recovery centers and the like, we must apply rules of placemaking to absolutely everything we build. Downtowns and residential neighborhoods; big-box centers and convenience stores. Everything!   The new bottom line: Smart Growth must become the rule, and not the exception.

Opportunities to Highlight

So how can we more quickly turn this game around? Here are a couple of opportunities that I'd like to highlight.

First touchdown. Let's change the way we build subdivisions . Enough of the single-lot-size, single-income, single-age subdivisions. Just say no! Here's a very simple alternative: build walkable, life-cycle, livable communities with mixed-size-homes that serve a variety of income levels and age groups. When possible, include rental units as well. This isn't rocket science. Kentlands and Lakelands, MD, or more locally, although perhaps less perfectly, The Villages in Huntington show this can work. Build a few and more will follow. Write codes that facilitate this mix. Proactively press developers to do it this way. And perhaps let's even consider how to make existing large-lot subdivisions serve a broader range of age levels, too.

Here's another. Long Islanders love their hamlets and villages. So let's make more!   Let's begin to turn some of our aging and ugly strip center “greyfields” into gold. Vision's been talking about this for some time. Long Island is populated with under-performing strip centers up and down its corridors. It's time to turn some of these asphalt centers into high-performing, tax-generating communities and prune back the sprawl in between. Sure we can look to Mizner Park, in Boca Raton, FL, or Eastgate Mall in Chattanooga, TN, but we can also look to what's being done right here in Mastic-Shirley on the Montauk Highway Corridor. These redevelopments can retain a retail or commercial focus, while integrating a mix of housing into productive, attractive, and walkable complete neighborhoods. Our corridors are gold waiting to be mined. Touchdown again.

By the way, a key is for municipal leaders and staff to proactively approach the property owners and developers early on. Let them know what you and your community would like to see in your town. Don't wait for the site plan to get placed on the desk of your planning department before making a move.

The Solution – 3 Challenges

The fact of the matter is, though, that we need much more to win this game. So I'm going to wind up by taking this opportunity to add three, really important challenges for each municipality – cities, towns, and villages -- for this coming year. This challenge is extended to three key stakeholders: municipal leaders, developer/builders, and community leaders. Again, these are for each town.

Challenge number one. For developer/builders, we challenge you to step forward and propose or construct a model smart growth project for each town. It could be a small project, such as an attractive mixed-use apartment over stores. Or a larger-scale, mixed-income range subdivision (which we'll call a neighborhood) incorporating Smart Growth (New Urbanist, Neo Traditional, what have you) concepts. A model project will go far to encourage similar efforts to follow. Each town, one in-the-ground project. C'mon developers, give us your best!

Challenge number two is directed to municipal leaders. We challenge you to assist with the creation and adoption of Smart Growth-enabling codes or regulations, such as a mixed-use downtown ordinance, street design standards, affordable housing mandates in subdivisions, and the like. Create a regulation to facilitate building the right thing. Use a community process if you can or need to. Again, for each town, at least one Smart Growth code or regulatory change.

The third challenge is directed toward community leaders (and municipal officials).   We challenge you to embark on a comprehensive community vision and planning process to establish common values and goals regarding land use, open space and housing. This will provide the basis for comprehensive planning and new regulations for the municipality that can be embraced by the community. Pro-action versus reaction. This one big picture effort could be the most important land use endeavor your town might ever undertake.

Three challenges that developers, community leaders, and municipal officials must, frankly, all work together on. Three opportunities to change the momentum of this game. But everyone needs to work towards the same general goal. One team member cannot work to preserve open space while another presses forward with urban sprawl. We have to pull together. We have to stay focused. Our goal is not just scoring a few political and feel-good “Smart Growth” points. I was reminded again last night, as I looked at the smiling, innocent faces of my 7 and 10 year-old sons that this game is a far more serious game indeed. This game is not just about preserving and improving Long Island for our future, but for our children and the future of the generations that follow.

Let's learn, let's huddle, let's work together and let's roll!   Again, thank you all for coming, and enjoy the rest of the day.

Vision Long Island
24 Woodbine Ave, Suite One, Northport, NY 11768
Phone: 631-261-0242 Fax: 631-754-4452