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"THE OPPORTUNITIES OF SMART GROWTH" Ron Stein, President of Vision Long IslandAsk a resident, and they will rail about the massive traffic congestion, taxes, over-development, lack of retirement opportunities, oppressive ugliness of the corridors, and their feelings of immense disempowerment. Ask business leaders, and they will tell you about the lack of affordable homes for their low- and middle-income workforce. Ask environmentalists, and they will cry over the loss of habitat and high levels of air and water pollution. Ask developers, and they will grumble about the unpredictability of municipal reviews and direction, onerous regulations and paperwork, and a hostile community. Ask municipal leaders, and they will complain that the contentiousness between the different stakeholder groups alone has reached nearly unbearable levels. Municipal leaders are desperate for politically and economically viable solutions. These are all symptoms that the land use machine is broken, and I suspect that every municipal leader will admit (perhaps not publicly) that this is so. Simply put, the elements of sprawl and lack of planning are becoming increasingly unbearable. The wheel is coming off the car. Do we pull over, fix the wheel, or do we drive on blindly and negligently? Something must be done now. The good news is that something can. Fortunately, as communities across the nation grapple with the same challenges of post World War II development as Long Island, solutions have emerged. Those solutions we call Smart Growth. The question is, will Long Island's municipalities adopt these solutions, or will we stick our collective heads in the sand? The Causes of Sprawl Before I get into opportunities and solutions, let's step back and briefly address what has got us into this mess and what's keeping us pinned. Regulations and zoning. The well-intentioned zoning codes and development practices that began back in the 30's are no longer serving us. The segregation of uses that zoning encourages, instead of encouraging compact, land-preserving development, has resulted in the endless sprawl of the commercial corridors, and single-income-range subdivisions. Lack of compact land use has made mass transportation largely ineffective. Moreover, these codes, including the comprehensive plans and other subdivision regulations are products of top-down thinking -- have come from the mountaintop, rather than having evolved from a broad community process. Development practices. Builders and developers, having honed their skills on certain methods of development, have been reluctant to adjust to new methods. So instead of construction of complete, pedestrian-friendly neighborhoods, which may include mixing uses, income levels, and reducing setbacks, subdivisions and PUDs (planned unit developments) that are age- and income-segregated, often gated and car-oriented with limited public spaces have become the norm. The problem is less one over-development (though it does exist in many areas) so much as poor development. Furthermore, municipalities on Long Island create infrastructure roads and utilities that encourage conventional sprawl development. Traffic engineering. Mired in many outdated practices and slow to embrace alternatives, over many years the traffic and transportation planners have fashioned a hierarchical street system rather than complete street grids that limits the most efficient movement of traffic and forces cars on to highly congested main corridors. Roads are built for cars, at the expense of pedestrian and bicycle safety. As a result, alternative transportation including walking and bicycling is discouraged. Racism and Classism. Both remain rampant, and create obstacles to create needed safe housing for lower-paid and middle-income residents who are essential components to the labor force, as well as our own children. Myths about affordable housing, impacts on property values and safety abound. Political Fundraising Practices. Many environmental, activists and civic groups rail at the perceived unholy alliance between the development and building industries and the political establishment's inability to be objective about land use decisions. Local and national legislation so far has had little impact. Lack of Proactive Community Involvement and NIMBYsm. The top-down approach to planning and development has left the public feeling victimized, disempowered, and hostile. Community resistance has evolved to an art form as community groups, after years of distress are saying no more to just about everything. NIMBYsm not in my backyard has evolved to BANANAS build absolutely nothing anywhere near anything and now to NOPE not on planet earth. But as much as a desire to protect, NIMBYsm is based on fear fear of change, often lack of education, and lack of an awareness of alternatives. Lack of Effective Planning. Most municipalities, if they have a comprehensive plan at all, are working off antiquated plans, or plans built upon the sprawl-oriented concepts of the '50s and '60s. Few, if any, are predicated upon a community-based vision process, few have incorporated the leading-edge strategies and tools that many communities across America have used, and few have successfully integrated those plans with their regulatory apparatus. So, we have a pretty good idea about what is wrong. We also have a pretty good awareness of the tools we need. We must now commit to change the faulty practices that have led us to this current predicament. Those tools embody a tool chest we refer to as Smart Growth. Do we have the political will to engage those tools? Ah.& that is the question. What is Smart Growth? Most simply it's a combination of old and new planning tools that provide an alternative to and relief from the kind of sprawling development we've seen as the dominant land-use form since World War II. It encourages complete, pedestrian-friendly communities, open space, and environmental preservation. It reduces traffic congestion. Here are a few of the basic principles of Smart Growth.
We find that Smart Growth addresses the needs of the three key players in the land use movement: the community, the builders and developers, and the municipalities. Smart Growth is a triple-win. The community benefits by enjoying significantly elevated quality of life, preserved public and open spaces, and enhanced property values. Developers win because, as time is money, their projects move far more predictably, swiftly and profitably. Municipalities win as infrastructure costs are lowered, property valuations are higher, and the immobilizing contentiousness that characterizes public discussion these days gives way to cooperation and mutual understanding. The sum total of these elements is the creation of neighborhoods, not subdivisions; of building places and destinations with mixes of uses and public space, not just power centers. Opportunities Abound It is often said that crisis breeds opportunity. What's exciting is that the very elements of sprawl that have dominated Long Island have led us to some extraordinary opportunities for redevelopment and growing smart, and many of the following were highlighted at this year's conference of the Congress for the New Urbanism, held in Miami Beach, Florida. Here are some of the key opportunities that we should boldly engage. 1. Get the Public Involved Proactively with Expertise. Municipalities can overcome NIMBYsm and community hostility by bringing in the public to help create goals and plans, while dramatically increasing the likelihood of success of the planning effort, whether for a comprehensive plan, or development of a single project or site. Comprehensive community visionings, community image surveys and public-workshop charrettes allow all the parties to express fears and concerns, become educated about alternatives and seek solutions. The set of skills necessary, however, in the contentious environment of Long Island is very high, and lack of expertise can doom the best effort. The action step: seek out skilled professionals with impeccable public process credentials and use effective public process in undertaking all aspects of land use. 2. Turn The Retail Corridors into Nodes of Mixed Use Development. The retail corridors are some of Long Island's greatest opportunities to turn areas of under-performing lineal sprawl into new hamlet and town centers that are attractive destinations and economically robust. Michael Beyard, who leads the Urban Land Institute's program on redevelopment of corridors recommends that municipalities should seek to prune back retail-zoned land, creating nodes of compact, mixed-use development along the heavily used corridors. This process also provides two other benefits: a) auto transportation moves more effectively in this environment, and 2) they establish the necessary densities to permit alternative transportation to be cost effective. Modeling successful efforts in Brea, CA, and Florida's US Highway 1, this pearls on a string approach was recently used by the Town of Brookhaven on the Mastic-Shirley Montauk Highway Corridor and 25A in Middle Island. Action step: municipalities creating comprehensive corridor redevelopment plans. 3. Protect and Preserve Downtowns. Some of the best examples of urbanism and development on Long Island are apparent in the outstanding form of its existing downtowns. Downtowns are our best form of built environments: Northport, East Hampton, Greenport, Port Jefferson, Oyster Bay, Port Washington, old Babylon, and many others. Downtowns are now thriving because people and businesses love downtowns. National triple-A tenants The Gap, Anne Taylor, Barnes and Noble -- want to be there. Restaurants thrive there. Downtowns provide more than a sense of place and community: their very compact form accommodates a wide range of community needs and services. Workforce, mixed-income, and senior housing are ideally located in downtowns. Mass transportation works in downtowns. Downtowns are precious to Long Island, but need to be protected. Accordingly, municipal leaders need to lend new focus and commitment to insuring the success of their downtowns, and this means going much further than current streetscape commitments and facade enhancement grant levels. They must insure that the right mix and locations of competitive retail are established, that adequate parking and walkability exists within the downtown areas, and encourage the appropriate mix of national and local businesses to come in to the downtowns. It also means properly siting businesses potentially damaging to downtowns. Main Street associations, Business Improvement Districts, and designated, trained downtown managers should be established by each municipality to protect and grow these critical areas. 4. Convert Single-use Aging Retail Centers to Livable Communities. The large inventory of aging shopping centers and other uses called greyfields presents an opportunity of enormous proportions here, on Long Island, the home of the shopping center and retail mall. Aged, distressed retail centers across the country are being redeveloped into complete and compact communities. Mashpee Commons, on Cape Code, Mizner Park in Boca Raton, FL, Eastgate Commons in Nashville, are all examples of thriving mixed-use town centers new downtowns -- that provide retail, office, and housing and have arisen out of the ashes of asphalt-dominated shopping centers, redeveloped from blighted areas into complete and livable communities. 5. Diversify the Uses of Industrial, Office and Research Parks and Corridors. A similar approach of complete community building can be applied to old industrial areas, commercial centers, and light industrial centers. Brownfields present a considerable opportunity, and many can be appropriately mitigated and provide safe redevelopment opportunities and a mix of uses. The same concepts, however, apply to new office and industrial corridors as well. Housing and services need to be closely linked to these major employment centers. University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, is redeveloping a 1000 acre research center, with extensive pedestrian connections, mix of restaurants and services, shared parking, connection with transit, and plenty of public space. Legacy Corporate Center, with over 23,000 employees in the Dallas Ft. Worth area of Texas, housing such major corporations as Dr. Pepper, Frito Lay and Compaq Computer is fashioning a major redevelopment to integrate public space, services and restaurants into a new complete, walkable town center. 6. Create Mixed-income, Workplace Housing. Smart Growth provides the methodology for providing effective low and middle-income housing, and has the best success stories to model. Large developments of single low-income housing projects are sociological experiments that are doomed to meet community resistance and worse, ultimately fail. Smart Growth seamlessly weaves not only middle-income affordable housing into new and existing communities, but low-income and subsidized rental and equity housing as well. By using design effectively, community acceptance is dramatically improved and property values enhanced. Smart Growth communities, such as Park Duvalle, in Lousiville, Kentucky, Randolph Neighborhood, in Richmond, Virginia, and many others have demonstrated that providing a mixing of income ranges can work. Witness Wyndcrest, in Silver Springs, Maryland, where subsidized homes priced at $77,000 stand side-by-size with home many times their value. What permits this is architecture and design, and a strategic mix of housing throughout the community. 7. Confront Race, Equity, and Diversity Issues Head On. Racism and classism continue to undermine efforts at education and community creation. Underneath the dreaded hot button of affordable housing lie not just a perceived loss of property values but a distinct fear of people of other races, nationalities, and economic class. While Smart Growth provides a physical mechanism for creating communities of diversity, municipal leadership must separately commit to untying the knot of racism that festers across Long Island, and places Long Island as being atop the most segregated regions in America, as indicated at the recent symposium on Long Island called Erase Racism and a recent Newsday editorial. Elected leadership must employ tools that include community dialogues and education, Study Circles and other methods, and encourage changes in financing and commit to break down this cancerous institution with actions and not just words and task forces. 8. Broaden the Commitment to Environmental and Historic Preservation. Everyone knows that the very health of our existence on Long Island is predicated upon delicate ecosystems and groundwater management. Despite this, our environments continue to suffer and open spaces dwindle, not so much to over-development, put to poor and inappropriate development. Sophisticated and effective preservation tools exist, but towns lack the knowledge and infrastructure to put them in place. Areas must be targeted for stability and preservation, and others for development and change. Communities must identify their important parcels and sacred spaces, and determine their needs for public passive and active open space. Comprehensive green plans, which include trails and paths, parks and recreation areas, important and delicate ecosystems and historical sites and buildings must be created regionally and by each municipality. 9. Support Seniors and Teens with Life-cycle Communities and Amenities. One of the key reasons seniors are forced off of Long Island is that the large, now-empty nest is unmanageable. Unfortunately, most neighborhood subdivisions are targeted to limited age ranges, and seniors can't move down in size yet stay in the communities they've lived in for years. Providing complete mixed-range of housing in communities, on the other hand, such as Kentlands, Maryland, would allow seniors to leave a large home yet stay in the neighborhood. Again, we need to build complete communities when we build, and begin the process of retrofitting suburbs over time to meet the housing needs. Planned retirement communities wouldn't be an issue if we built complete communities that were senior friendly, encouraged pedestrian activity and interaction in the first place. Teenagers are the other forgotten age class. Teenagers need places to go and interact. It's bad enough that here, in suburbia, it's almost impossible for teenagers to travel distances without auto dependency. We give them no place to go. Teenagers desperately need social environments that provide positive stimulation and enhance important community values, and interact more with non-parent adults. Towns need to commit resources to meet the needs of teens whether through supervised youth centers, skateboard parks. 10. Adopt New Community-Based Plans, Codes & Regulations. Municipalities must now move past their mostly-archaic compilation of comprehensive plans, codes and regulations and rebuild them. Ideally, this begins with comprehensive, proactive community input, results in a new vision and comprehensive plan, and then is integrated with new codes and regulations. Because this process is costly and takes time, interim mixed-use codes can be implemented strategically with proactive community input -- in certain areas before a new comprehensive plan is done. Interim codes are especially important in controlling and civilizing the national chains and convenience stores that can wreak visual havoc on a community. Again, in Mastic Shirley, a new graphical code is being designed that will focus on the Montauk Highway corridor, although ultimately Brookhaven will need a more comprehensive approach. Port Jefferson has adopted a mixed-use ordinance that permits apartments over stores in their downtown area. Municipalities should make the commitment now to embark on a process of comprehensive plan, code and regulatory overhaul. 11. Encourage Good Architecture and Urban Design. Long Island's sprawl has left us a legacy of ugliness. When we survey residents, this is among the loudest cries for reform. The solution is not the creation of an aesthetics police force but rather education and community input into the appropriate design vocabulary, which will vary from community to community. Instead of creating an architecture of disenfranchisement and ugliness, we must draw on our vernacular roots and build an architecture of community. Municipalities can take this big step forward by again using public process -- such as community image surveys and codes to craft guidelines for builders and developers. A designated town architect/urban planner could help guide builders, developers, and even homeowners to build in a fashion that's more community uplifting. Moreover, strong commercial codes and guidelines could help redirect the national chains to building in the community in a more acceptable fashion. Improved design and architecture is a key element that runs across all elements of Smart Growth land use. 12. Take Back The Streets with Street Design Standards The streets have become the elemental public spaces in America. However, streets must be transformed into efficient and safe transporters of cars at the same time that they are friendly to pedestrian and bicyclists. New Smart Growth street design methods exist to assist in this. A relatively simple step for municipalities to take would be to commit to a safe and attractive streets program that seeks to do several things: narrow lane-widths in residential areas to slow traffic speeds, widen sidewalks in downtowns and pedestrian areas, create buffers between sidewalks and street, create bicycle and pedestrian lanes, improve intersection markings, and use roundabouts and refuge islands to assist pedestrians in certain areas. A modest budget is usually enough to establish detailed street design standards. 13. Think Regionally. Long Island is an amalgam of thousands of fiefdoms that often overlap, compete, and make thinking on land use as a whole nearly impossible. Our gathering together for this land use Summit, seeking to shake that trend, is a start. With the crisis of land use staring down our throats, now is the time to put differences aside and consider a more regional perspective. Southern California where home rule also rules, some years ago established the Local Government Commission, which in turn created the Center for Livable Communities. The upshot is that an infrastructure exists which functions to provide a basis for regional thinking. In Cape Cod, MA Long Island's geological twin sister -- the Cape Code Commission is seen as the go-to entity to decide on developments of significant regional impact. That similar approach must be undertaken here. The Challenge Whether new development or old, whether greyfield or brownfield, a key underlying theme of good land use is a relatively simple one: think in terms of complete and compact communities. The first challenge we put to every land use staff person, every elected leader, every developer and builder is this: to view every land use application and project through the lens of smart land use. Ask yourself: Am I encouraging a development that provides for a mix of uses, income levels and ages within the community? Have I brought the community in to assist with the creation of this project? 3. Is this project part of, or constitute a complete community, one that's walkable, provides open space, and offers community-enhancing architecture? The other challenge is directed to our political leadership. A political leader who understands Smart Growth and effective community process has the ability to dramatically impact and leave a lasting positive legacy. A political leader who understands Smart Growth can move an angry, frightened citizenry off the mark. Witness John Norquist's efforts in the City of Milwaukee, where he turned a city into supporting the unthinkable tearing down a highway in the city and creating pedestrian-friendly destination. Or Nancy Graham, the mayor of what was the distressed City of West Palm Beach, Florida, and who has turned that city into a minor miracle. It takes leadership and courage, but the results are well worth it. Real leadership, real accomplishments. Elected leadership is hereby challenged to not merely embrace the words of Smart Growth as tasty sound bites or worse, point to a few minor demonstration efforts as indicative of a Smart Growth policy while the rest of the municipality's land use practices go unchanged. Ultimately, true political will shall make or break effective and smart land use. In closing, Smart Growth must begin to be the rule, not the exception on Long Island if we are to fix the broken system. If we don't, Long Island will assuredly will be paved, end to end, embodying all the worst characteristics, and few of the good ones, of Brooklyn, Queens and other highly urbanized first ring suburbs, with segregated oasis of one and two acre subdivisions providing aesthetic relief. Let's make it clear -- the tools are now in place to make a change in our direction, and there are great opportunities for positive change where the needs of residents and developers go hand in hand. We can either keep our collective heads in the sand and try to hold off the inevitable, with planning staffs frenetically sticking fingers in the dikes hoping to keep the onrushing waters at bay, or& we can take another road. The Smart Growth road is not easy land use seldom is but it provides the tools to make Long Island a better place to live, and one that stands to thrive economically and environmentally in the future. As Americans, we are often accused of not responding until the crisis is upon us, but once there, our creativity and energy is marshaled into tremendous force for positive action. Just as we have, over the last year, responded with a conviction to thwart a danger to the safety and the security of our citizenry, so must we respond with similar conviction to protect the rights of our children and future generations to a healthy, affordable and economically sound place to live, work, and play.
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Vision
Long Island |