First appeared in Newsday on October 14, 2009.
October 14, 2009 By SARAH LANSDALE AND JODY KASS
Sarah Lansdale is the executive director of Sustainable Long Island. Jody Kass is executive director of New Partners for Community Revitalization.
We all know how precious land is on Long Island. There's not much left, so we want to use what we've got wisely.
Nevertheless, across our landscape is a legacy of contaminated land known as brownfields - old gas stations, vacant warehouses and industrial buildings that left contamination in the soil that needs to be cleaned up before the land can be transformed into housing and job-generating businesses.
Reusing these sites is crucial if we want to protect undeveloped land and grow our economy at the same time. But the kind of capital needed to recycle these properties is tough to come by these days.
So we are energized by Gov. David A. Paterson's announcement last week awarding nearly $2.4 million to Long Island neighborhoods for site remediation projects under the state's Brownfield Opportunity Area program.
This program can help guide developers to design projects that communities want. Communities can devise a plan for their future and attract new businesses appropriate for their downtowns, including housing and retail, commercial, manufacturing, business incubators and public amenities like parks or recreation facilities.
Wyandanch was a big winner last week, with a grant of more than $1.4 million to clean up a 105-acre area with as many as 250 brownfield sites. The money will fund redevelopment feasibility studies and marketing strategies to attract new projects to this developing downtown.
In two separate brownfield opportunity projects in Hicksville, vacant and underutilized properties will advance toward reuses that include new businesses and services - including retail shops, supermarkets and banks in communities that lack them - as well as housing options for seniors and young people, and enhanced transportation safety for motorists and pedestrians. These priorities were identified in the Brownfield Opportunity Area planning process, so the developments are welcome and will be expedited.
In Huntington Station, a 500-acre area will be studied for redevelopment. Additionally, the Village of Farmingdale received a grant of nearly $300,000 to advance a 60-acre project cleaning up 14 potential brownfields on Main Street.
These are great examples of what can be accomplished under the state's landmark brownfield program. Created in 2003, the Brownfield Opportunity Area program is emerging as a centerpiece of sustainable development on Long Island and across the state. Already, more than 100 communities have BOA projects under way.
Among its unique features, the brownfields opportunity program gives people living in affected neighborhoods a seat at the table. By using BOA's area-wide approach to brownfield remediation - rather than the traditional site-by-site approach - these communities can comprehensively assess economic and environmental conditions associated with brownfield blight, identify and prioritize community-supported opportunities, and attract public and private investment.
During these tough economic times, we are looking to our leaders in Albany to choose carefully how they spend and coordinate funding with state, regional and local priorities. Such funding should pay off in the long run - aligning with long-term job creation, overall tax-base expansion, environmental protection, and strong partnerships between county, town and village leaders and the community.
These important investments are building our tax base, laying the foundation for economic growth and community regeneration. Revitalizing brownfields will revitalize our downtowns and our region at large.