Long Island's 2006 "Vision" Awards

Vision Long Island Celebrates Good Planning with Annual Smart Growth Awards

Reprinted from Smart Growth Online

Its annual Smart Growth Awards dubbed the ''Oscars of land use,'' the Northport-based Vision Long Island nonprofit group presented them to 11 winners for the area's best 2005 projects and actions, but it also gave a Dumb Growth Award to the town of Smithtown, for approving a string of big-boxes, including a Wal-Mart and a Home Depot in an area already hard to get to, with Vision Executive Director Eric Alexander additionally blaming its officials for tardiness in affordable housing and open space programs, observing, ''They seem joyfully hostile to some of these concepts because they keep creating sprawl development.''

Smithtown planning director Frank DuRubeis, report Long Island Business News writers Jeremy Harrell and Dawn Wotapka Hardesty, called the Dumb Growth Award ''mean-spirited,'' saying the town led efforts to coordinate new projects in the Sagtikos Parkway corridor, but was rebuffed by towns that are now some of its loudest critics.

The Smart Growth Award list, the writers note, includes

- the town of Brookhaven, for a long-term land-use plan to create downtown centers and curb sprawl along Route 25;
-Landing Avenue LLC, for Country View Estates, a senior residence complex in Smithtown, with the town's first affordable housing component;
- Pulte Homes, for Copper Beech Villages, a downtown housing project with 50 percent of units deemed affordable;
- the town of Oyster Bay and the Oyster Bay Main Street Association, for joint efforts to protect the historic downtown area and ensure its economic viability;
- Coalition for a Safe Manhasset, for work to improve the safety of Plandome Road and adjacent streets;
- the village of Port Washington North, the town of North Hempstead and Residents for a More Beautiful Port of Washington, for a waterfront park, a rare public space within a developed area; - the village of Mineola, for its transit-oriented, mixed-use comprehensive plan;
- the Tri-State Transportation Campaign, for seeking transportation alternatives;
- the town of Southampton, for the Riverside Hamlet Center;
- the Albanese Organization, for Long Island's first environmentally engineered office building, in Garden City; and
- Nassau Council of Chambers of Commerce official Richard Bivone, for efforts to make the county's business community cooperate with governmental, environmental and community groups.

Click HERE to view the source article at Long Island Business News
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A Dumb Growth Award, eh? Hmm. We hope that the Town of Hempstead was at least a contender for dishonorable mention! :-)