Douzinas: Middle ground
Environmentalists and developers getting together to forge a plan that protects the Carmans River and promotes downtown housing? If this keeps up, people are going to think Long Island is getting its act together.
The new pact not only serves Long Island’s need for affordable housing and environmental protection. It also shows what effective planning looks like.
The plan was produced by a group convened by Brookhaven Town Supervisor Mark Lesko to head off a looming battle between environmentalists intent on protecting the river and developers seeking to build in the area. Between official sessions and informal meetings among the stakeholders, and with seven-day-a-week assistance from the town and the Long Island Pine Barrens Commission, a comprehensive agreement was hammered out in a matter of months.
The new pact:
Bans development in 2,100 acres of sensitive watershed
Permits transfer of development rights from this area into areas currently zoned commercial or industrial, not residential, maintaining the suburban character we love and incentivizing the mixed-use development we need
Defines, in certain terms, what affordable housing is – 80 percent of the area’s median income. No longer will a home that costs up to 120 percent of the area’s median income be deemed “affordable.”
Importantly, the plan includes incentives for builders to locate housing close to railroad stations and supermarkets, so as to produce lively, walkable communities, and to site projects near existing sewage facilities. This kind of proactive planning should be adopted by municipalities Islandwide.
