Monday, October 08, 2007

Reports from the Battlefield

After a week of very difficult land-use issues, please allow us to indulge you in some "reports" from the battlefield. Below is a post we placed on a Long Island Business News blog on Brain Drain that we thought was worth reprinting.

How do we keep young folks here? According to a recent poll, 53% of young people on Long Island want to live in a downtown, walkable community accessible to shops, transit and other lifestyle amenities. Having said that, only about 15% of proposed developments actually mirror that desire. Clearly, we have some work to do in order to meet this market demand, not just in the proposal stage, where some progress has been made, but with approvals and built projects. Based on our experiences, or to put it more bluntly, "war stories," here are some thoughts on how to get this done:

1) Understand who the decision makers are for land use generally and specifically, workforce or next generation housing: If we are not talking about civic associations, the property owners themselves, and local officials, you probably have a very skewed view of who the power players are. These groups are the decision makers and without them, nothing happens. Folks from the outside who try to make decisions for local communities without their support create more of a problem in the long run and, quite frankly, can cause a backlash that may include some unintended consequences (moratoriums, anti-development fever, paralyzed local officials, continued sprawl and conventional development, etc).

2) Educate ourselves and model best practices nationally and locally: Part of why a majority of Long Islanders do not trust development and have tremendous anxiety about new proposals is the abject failure, until recent years, to put forward any new or innovative proposals (i.e. developments that include safe streets, parks, open space preservation, mixed income housing, public benefit packages to schools, ballfields, green building, or respectful architecture). Thankfully, we have seen a number of really creative mixed use and Smart Growth projects of small (4-50 units) medium (50-300 units) and large scale (300+) developments come forward over the last 5-6 years. We still have a lot to learn from suburbs and State policies in New Jersey, Maryland, Virginia, and Pennsylvania, as we often have an Island mentality when it comes to new information and ideas.

3) Recognize proposals and policies that are in place and help move them along: There are over 50 Smart Growth projects either proposed or built on Long Island. These projects need priority support for approvals, incentives, infrastructure supports, etc. We must get behind them, support their passage on a local community level, ask the question of yourself, "What can I do to move these visions, policies and projects forward," and then do it!

4) Build in the right locations and lay the groundwork with sewer, transportation, and other infrastructure investment: Long Islanders want preservation of existing open and green space. However, there are opportunities to build in downtowns and commercial corridors that would be economically and politically viable, with the infrastructure supports in place. Even before projects are proposed for downtowns or in commercial corridors, begin to put in place revenues to support the infrastructure needed to make development work.

5) Be prepared for the long haul: Despite the policy pronouncements, cheerleading and complaining that often happens, getting creative projects proposed, approved, and built is a very long and difficult process. You may need to analyze yourself to see if you have the temperament to do this work. If you believe that your ideas are better and smarter than most folks, that all the civics are NIMBY's, that all local officials lack leadership, and that all developers are greedy, then working in the arena of land use and planning may not be the best use of your time.

Everyone should educate themselves on the best models, locally and nationally, and join a civic association in their own community to advocate for change on the local level. If folks cannot get themselves into local issues, they should use their energy to create resources and incentives to move projects forward quicker, more efficiently, and with high quality. It is our experience that it is not the compelling ideas from smart folks that makes things move. Instead, spend the time to work together with fellow Long Islanders to make their communities a better place for themselves and their children. Finding that enlightened self interest in all of us is really the key.

Posted by Eric at 10:03:11 PM in Blog (23) | Comments (0)

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