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Accomplishments
View our 2008 Annual Report
Smart
Growth and Community Revitalization
Bellport (Brookhaven):
- 2006: $50,000 in funding was secured from Town of Brookhaven and $12,000 from Suffolk County to conduct community planning. Pre-community planning outreach and initiated capacity building with community coalition.
- 2007: Sustainable Long Island conducted community planning weekend with over 500 residents, using iinteractive technology to gauge opinions of residents on critical issues.
Photos from our work in Bellport
Elmont (Hempstead):
- 2006: $40,000 in funding was secured from Town of Hempstead to conduct community planning. Sustainable Long Island initiated pre-community planning outreach and capacity building with community coalition.
- 2007: Sustainable Long Island guided the coalition of residents culminating in community planning process.
Photos from our work in Elmont
Middle Country (Brookhaven):
- 2006: Sustainable Long Island facilitated three community education workshops and visioning weekend activities including press conference, 7 focus groups, public kick off, design day, and public presentation. Over 500 community stakeholders participated, working with the coalition leadership to structure a formal 501c3 to oversee implementation efforts and to determine essential next steps for short term implementation objectives.
Port Washington (North Hempstead):
- 2005: Sustainable Long Island facilitated a peninsula-wide community planning process that included pre-plan outreach and education, a community planning weekend, development of a plan and adoption of that plan by community coalition and Town of North Hempstead.
New Cassel (North
Hempstead):
- 2001: Assisted in the formation of the Unified New Cassel
Community Revitalization Corporation, an independent local partner
in New Cassel
- 2002: “Seeking a Shared Vision for New Cassel,”
a community visioning process facilitated by Sustainable Long
Island, convened 800 residents
- 2003: New Cassel’s first master plan, written by Sustainable
Long Island, adopted by the Town of North Hempstead
- 2004: Plan implementation. $80 million in private real estate
investment generated to date in New Cassel. The community will
now have its first bank, supermarket, and pharmacy
- 2005 - 2007: Sustainable Long Island has been providing technical assistance to UNCCRC to develop organizational infrastructure and leadership
Wyandanch (Babylon):
- 2003: Facilitated community visioning process “Wyandanch
Rising,” convening 250 residents and stakeholders
and in partnership with Town of Babylon Supervisor Steven C.
Bellone and Suffolk County Presiding Officer Maxine Postal
- 2004: Wyandanch Vision Plan adopted by Town of Babylon
- 2005: Implementation Committee convened with Sustainable Long Island
acting as a non-voting member
- 2006: Sustainable Long Island participated in selection committee for engineering firm who will work on Wyandanch BOA project
- 2007: Sustainable Long Island represented community in talks with US Post Office to revise their new building plans
Roosevelt (Hempstead):
- 2002: Facilitated community visioning process, “Seeking
a Shared Vision for Roosevelt,” convening 500 stakeholders,
in partnership with the Nassau County Executive Thomas R. Suozzi
and Town of Hempstead Supervisor Richard V. Guardino, Jr.
- 2002-03: Identified 15 brownfields along the main commercial
corridor in Roosevelt and drafted a community revitalization
and economic development plan
- 2003: Organized volunteers from the Roosevelt community to
construct a new playground at the Washington Rose Elementary
School
- 2006: After a breakdown in the implementation of the community plan, Sustainable Long Island met with community leaders, held three community dialogue/coalition building workshops facilitated by an outside facilitator and was attended by 15 community leaders
Huntington Village
(Huntington):
- 2000: Invested $30,000 in community visioning event to redesign
Gerard Stree.
- 2002: Leveraged $200,000 in public financing to build the
first phase of the vision plan, the Gerard Street traffic-calming
roundabout.
- 2003: Roundabout completed.
Brownfields
Redevelopment
- Launched web site containing first public database of Long
Island’s 6,800 Brownfields as identified by the NYS Department
of Environmental Protection and the US Environmental Protection
Agency; receives 1,000 visitors monthly; inventory updated annually
- Hosted four regional Brownfields conferences and conducted
over 100 presentations to introduce the concept
- Helped craft and successfully supported the passage of statewide
Brownfields cleanup legislation, law adopted 2003
- Created Brownfields Basics, a how-to redevelopment manual
distributed regionally; second edition to be distributed statewide
- Launched the Long Island Redevelopment Institute (LI REDI)
to unite businesses and developers with community, financial,
and government resources. Services include: site identification,
assessment, redevelopment strategies, project management, site
control and financing.
- Developed and launched Brownfield Busters Patch Program in Nassau and Suffolk Counties, an educational program developed to teach Long Island Girl Scouts about brownfields and environmental leadership. Presented program at EPA National Brownfield Conference and received regional EPA award for program
- Organized individual meetings with 4 municipalities and the Department of State to explore utilizing BOA (planning) grants to further revitalization goals within their specific localities - The 4 municipalities were the Village of Freeport, Town of Brookhaven, Town of Riverhead and Town of Islip
- Participated in a number of regional and national conferences and committees including: EPA National Brownfield Conference, co-chair of NYS chapter of National Brownfield Association, invited by The Ferguson Group to be members of a national committee of organizations committed to advancing brownfield redevelopment initiatives
Regional
Transportation Initiative
- 1999: Formed partnership with four regional organizations
and successfully convinced the Long Island Department of Transportation
(LIDOT) to create a $3 million Pedestrian Safety Fund for traffic-calming
road improvements.
- 2000: In collaboration with the Wyandanch community, Town
of Babylon, and Suffolk County, secured from LIDOT $400,000
for road-narrowing improvements to Straight Path, formerly one
of the most dangerous roads for pedestrians in New York State
- 2003: Became member of consultant team chosen by Nassau County
to conduct a $600,000 transportation study for the Nassau HUB,
the economic epicenter of the region.
- 2003: Traffic-calming roundabout on Gerard Street in Huntington
completed
Setting
the stage for a new regional paradigm
Sustainable Long Island’s
full list of accomplishments is much longer, but our greatest
successes are the intangible ones. We have created a new vocabulary
on regionalism; inspired two other groups to organize Smart Growth
efforts on Long Island; advised a U.S. Senator, the Governor of
New York, County Executives, Town Supervisors and a Mayor on sustainable
development policy; inspired Democrats and Republicans to work
together to revitalize numerous Long Island communities; introduced
Brownfields redevelopment as a new growth industry for the region;
and motivated economic development professionals in every Long
Island town, village and municipality to focus on sustainable
development.
In other words, we are
working continuously to ensure that sustainability becomes Long
Island’s new economic paradigm. In the past decade, we
have begun to reverse the negative effects of 50 years of unplanned
growth. With all our combined efforts, Long Island can be a place
of beauty and opportunity for all Long Islanders, now and for
generations to come.
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