While many Smart Growth proponents are focused on obvious economic and quality of life gains that can be made by nurturing Upstate New York's older industrial areas, a huge project on Long Island has been proposed that's a potential game-changer there, according to coverage in Newsday, the island's dominant daily paper.
"How can an aging suburb built on the dream of single-family homes, good jobs and good schools sustain itself when no more growth is possible," the paper asked in a recent edition. Their answer: development like the 150-acre Lighthouse Project, planned as a large, Smart Growth, sustainable community featuring luxury condos as well as affordable housing, places for seniors and rentals for college students.
Project developers say it would be Long Island's largest environmentally friendly project, incorporating the U.S. Green Building Council's energy and design concepts. The project is part of a 10 year, $4 billion plan to renovate the aging Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum and re-develop surrounding land into a centerpiece of residential housing and commercial uses that would create a walkable, bikeable community that employs transit with a trolley and a shuttle to the Mineola train station.
Vision Long Island, the area's long-time Smart Growth planning organization, says the Lighthouse Project is "essentially a new town center redeveloped out of a sea of asphalt and unworkable sprawl." The group reports there has been "tremendous public outreach on the project on the part of the developer and a series of community-based organizations," adding the effort is "an unprecedented practice for a development of regional significance."
Public hearings and comment will follow a 45 day period after the project's environmental documents are fully filed with the Town of Hempstead, which would need to grant zoning changes for The Lighthouse to move forward. The town needs to decide by April 28 if the plans are ready for county and state review.
For recent coverage of the issue:
http://www.newsday.com/news/opinion/ny-vplight016053536mar01,0,5341762.story
