The Nassau Hub Citizens Advisory Committee is made up of 50 civic associations, chambers of commerce, community organizations, and environmental groups, as well as several individual residents. It is a citizen watchdog group, organized by the Neighborhood Network, and is not affiliated with any governmental agency. The Citizens Advisory Committee was formed to fight for community input on the planning process for the Nassau Hub. Citizen activists have been critical of the closed nature of the planning process for the Nassau Hub. The Hub Citizens Advisory Committee is primarily concerned with ensuing that the development proposed for the Hub does not increase traffic congestion in central Nassau, or conflict with efforts to revitalize downtown business districts.

The Hub CAC has heard from nationally-recongnized planners and held meetings on Smart Growth, downtown revitalization, economic development that is compatible with environmental protection, and transportation alternatives.

The Hub CAC developed a critique of the original (1998) “Hub Study” finding that its major flaws resulted from a complete lack of community involvment in developing the Study, and the fact that the Study did not offer a true commuter solution. The proposed loop and partial loop did not link existing train lines and did not provide access from populations centers to key employment desitinations. It would have served mainly as an extensive parking lot shuttle. The concept for a “Hub” is for it to have spokes that reach out and back. The original Study was lacking in this respect.

After critiquing the original Hub Study, the Hub CAC went on to form two sub-committees, one on transit options, and one on land use. These two sub-committees reported back to the full group and 10 recommendations were adopted by a group vote after discussion. Click these links to see specific recommenations, including a map of proposed transportation routes for the MIS and for Hempstead Town.

The Neighborhood Network would like to thank the Long Island Community Foundation and the Long Island Unitarian Universalist Fund for their generous support of the Nassau Hub Citizens Advisory Committee.

Major Investment Study Process

The final public meeting of the Nassau Hub Major Investment Study (MIS) was held on Tuesday, April 5, 2005, from 7:00-9:00 pm,
at the Nassau County Department of Social Services Auditorium
101 County Seat Drive, Mineola.

The Nassau Hub Citizens Advisory Committee has previously developed specific recommenations, including a map of proposed transportation routes for the upcoming MIS and for Hempstead Town.

Past Meeting Notes

The October 7, 1999 meeting featured an impressive presentation by Victor Dover, a nationally recognized expert in sustainable development. This presentation was made possible by a cooperative effort with Vision Huntington, and Sustainable Long Island.

On September 15, 1999 we organized a delegation of project participants to meet with the editorial board of Newsday. This meeting resulted in an editorial highly favorable to the project, and an additional, more recent editorial.

On February 8, 2000, two sub-committees were formed to work more intensively on the issues of development and transit. The Development Sub-committee consists of 11 volunteers, and the Transit Sub-committee has 14.

Meeting -- Tuesday, February 12, 2002

The Nassau Hub Citizens Advisory Committee met on Tuesday, February 12, 2002, at the Hofstra University Club.

The meeting was well attended. Approximately 80 community leaders participated including County Legislator David Dennenberg, Hempstead Town Councilwoman Dorothy Goosby, representatives of the Town of Hempstead Planning Department, and representatives from Congresswoman McCarthy's office.

At the meeting, guest speaker Richard Hall of Hall Engineering (Florida) provided a presentation on the topic of remaking suburban corridors, and how smart growth principles can be applied to the Hub. Mr. Hall is a nationally recognized transportation engineer who is a leader in the emerging field of commercial corridor revitalization and smart growth.

During the meeting, the Hub CAC reviewed proposals for how to move forward in regards to development and environmental issues regarding the Nassau Hub area. Proposed next steps were organized into the following five (5) areas.

Sub-committees Formed

At the meeting, the group approved a motion to form new sub-committees to work on the issues of:

1. Transit (12 members signed up)

2. Land Use/Rental Housing (13 members signed up, March 27th tentative meeting date)

3. Environmental Trust Fund (11 members signed up).

Each sub-committee will prepare a report for the full CAC. If you are interested in participating in one of the sub-committee meeting, call Jean at 516-541-4321.

Next Steps

1) Transit Options--Evaluating new public transit options (driving the long-awaited MIS process). Call for MIS to be performed in a community visioning "charrette" format, and pushing the MIS to consider innovative solutions to broader transportation problems. Immediate next steps: review latest information on new light rail and automated transit technologies; review maps of possible transit lines for Nassau; and form working group to visit New Jersey public transit systems before making recommendations.

2) Land Use--Review, and where appropriate critique, development proposals under consideration or expected soon. Encourage proposals that will: reduce vehicle trips, encourage pedestrian friendly development, create mixed use centers, and other forms of environmentally friendly development. Immediate next steps: proposals for sub-committee work in this area may be shaped by the presentation of our guest speaker, Rick Hall.

3) Affordable/Rental Housing--Analyze where affordable and rental housing can fit into mixed use centers in and around the Hub. Immediate next steps: Form a working group to evaluate five different approaches to affordable housing which have been identified by regional housing advocates--for their applicability to different sites in the Hub; prepare recommendations.

4) Innovative Planning Outreach--Contact experts from around the country who have succeeded in implementing innovative "smart-growth" development projects and transportation systems in suburban communities; consider whether successful projects from other parts of the country can be looked to as model as how to proceed in Nassau. Immediate next steps: at this stage a sub-committee is probably not necessary, efforts have already begun to reach out to planning experts and identify models of "smart growth" development.

5) Reinventing Town and County Planning--Nassau County and the Town of Hempstead need to embrace community-based planning. We must foster move innovative thinking in both the county and town planning departments by encouraging government officials to enhance the capacity of planning departments by providing training for personnel, to work more closely with the community and stakeholders in developing plans, and implement recommendations designed to bring about smart growth proposals. In New York State, Onondaga County adopted plans to promote mixed-use development; Dutchess county adopted planes to protect environmental resources including greenways; and Suffolk County has adopted a Smart Growth Policy Plan, and appointed a smart growth task force. Many ideas in this regard may be drawn from recommendations adopted by the New York State Smart Growth Working Group, at their conference in 2000. Immediate next steps: request meetings with town and county officials; form ad hoc groups for delegation visits to urge a restructuring of planning departments.

Background

Several years ago, a private committee of political appointees--without any input from the community--prepared what was called the Hub Study. This report renamed part of central Nassau as the "Nassau Hub" and proceed to propose significant new development. To respond to the traffic congestion problems likely to be exacerbated by the new development, and prepare for anticipated opposition from chambers of commerce and community and environmental groups, the Study proposed some kind of a limited, light-rail loop. Based largely upon the Hub Study, Congress approved funding for a Major Transportation Investment Study (MIS). The MIS would look to using federal money to invest in new rail transit. The money for this MIS has been available for years, but the MIS is just now beginning.

The Nassau Hub Citizens Advisory Committee was formed by civic, environmental, and community leaders who are concerned about overdevelopment, and were outraged that the community was shut out of the original planning for the Hub. The Hub CAC, after many meetings, made recommendations to urge that the goal of the MIS be broadened to include traffic congestion issues as they confront a larger part of Nassau, and to call for a moratorium on all large developments in central Nassau until a comprehensive plan is developed with community input. As its last work product, the Hub CAC proposed that New York State provide funding for a major community visioning process (or charrette), that would develop proposals and set-the-stage for the MIS. The effort to get State funding first looked promising, but as Albany became deadlocked over financial issues, most budget items were never addressed as they adopted what was called a "bare-bones budget." It was assumed that budget issues would again be addressed at a later date, but after the September 11th attacks, everything has changed in Albany and no hope now exists for any new project funding.

Now the focus returns to the county and town level, as we continue to urge that planning decisions be made with extensive community involvement, and that new thinking be embraced to address seemingly intractable problems resulting from suburban sprawl. Information has been sent to the administration of the new county executive; urging that they embrace the Hub CAC recommendations, particularly as it applies to involving the community in the planning process.

For more information email: linnet@neighborhood-network.org