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Say NO To Suffolk County Resolution 1659-2015
Monday, November 16, 2015 at 9:54PM By p.biancaniello
Suffolk County Legislator Lindsay has introduced Resolution No. 1659-2015 establishing the Suffolk County Regional Planning Alliance Program. For the time being the resolution has been tabled. For people who have been following this resolution tabling is not enough. Earlier this month Kings Park activist and Vice President of the Kings Park Civic Association Linda Allocco Henninger appeared before the Environmental, Planning and Agriculture Committee to express her concerns about the resolution. Mincing no words Henninger said, “This resolution is an unwarranted intrusion into the zoning powers of our towns, If adopted, this resolution will allow Suffolk County the power to usurp local zoning.We believe it would equal nothing more than a power grab on the part of the County.”
Ms. Henninger is not alone in her opposition. Smithtown Town Supervisor Patrick R. Vecchio sent a simple one line statement to Legislators Trotta and Kennedy, “The Town of Smithtown is opposed to resolution #1659-2015.” Legislator Trotta says he also opposes the resolution and doesn’t believe there is support for it in the Legislature.
According to Town Planning Director David Flynn “The proposed law would not be in the best interests of the Town of Smithtown. The proposed law states that priority for County funding shall be given to certain projects, but none of the projects are in the Town of Smithtown. (projects mentioned are the Ronkonkoma Hub, Heartland Town Square, downtown Huntington Station, Wyandanch Village and Riverside) This means that funding for sewers and county highways in the Town will become more difficult to obtain.
Furthermore, none of the projects benefit Smithtown, and in fact they compete against the Town’s economic base. Increasing commercial floor area near the Town’s borders is bound to make commercial property in Smithtown less valuable. In essence the County’s proposal is to use Smithtown’s property taxes to subsidize the the Town’s competition.
In addition, the law will have an detrimental effect on the Town’s zoning. It is likely that in order for Smithtown to get a share of County funding, the Town will be pressured to change its zoning to permit development that the Town would not otherwise determine is good planning.”
Henninger was the only speaker at the committee meeting commenting on this resolution. She has been following this legislation since it was proposed because, according to Henninger, it is important to Kings Park. At the meeting Henninger expressed her dissatisfaction with section 1001-8 of the legislation “and any other development that, because of its character, magnitude, or location will have a substantial effect upon the health, safety, welfare, economy or environment of Suffolk County or upon more than one unit of local government and which has been so designated as a project of regional signigicance by the Long Island Regional Planning Council or the Suffolk County Planning Commission.” This section according to Henninger allows the Long Island Regional Planning Council or the Suffolk County Planning Commission to decide what projects in our communities are significant, again, taking that power and right away from local governments.
What can be done to make this resolution more palatable? Dave Flynn stated, “I would request the County not adopt this law, but rather to allow the County Executive and the County Legislature continue using the current process of deciding where to spend County resources. Your capital programming process is comprehensive and fair. This system has worked well since the County’s current form of government was created 55 years ago. The process has resulted in a desirable and efficient place to live and work.”
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