The statewide coalition of 28 member organizations that's been leading the citizen effort to improve New York's economic and civic potential through Smart Growth -- Empire State Future -- is now in its second year!

       With planning, environment, and business groups who are interested in advancing the many principles of "Smart Growth," the new coalition is working to turn them into reality in cities, towns and villages all across the Empire State.

     The coalition builds on  the generally accepted ideas that  cities need nurturing, suburban sprawl has been straining local services while ruining our landscape, and it's no longer possible to build our way out of traffic congestion.

    Empire State Future compliments and expands on efforts to bring progress and sanity to the way we plan our future. And a big element of our work involves communications: we work to provide the Smart Growth constituency and the general public with a lively Web site that is current, informative, and easily used.

      We strive to help establish a better public understanding of the links between land development patterns and the high cost of government services -- as well as the contribution of sprawl to ongoing environmental degradation.

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      Many people visiting our site for the first time might ask, "What do you mean by Smart Growth, and why is it important?"

      To us at Empire State Future, it's the effort to build a healthy economy that offers real choices in transportation, housing, and education while respecting farmlands, open space, and our many natural and historic resources. By building more homes and businesses in already-existing communities, we can save valuable open space and conserve money spent on our roads and other infrastructure. Which makes it important for our future, and for our children's future.

      Linking land use decisions with existing development is good because it can take advantage of a multitude of public investments that are already in place, avoiding the need to duplicate them. Sprawl is bad because it tends to reward land speculation in the marketplace without regard to areas where development may be better suited -- and oftentimes much preferred.

      Why shouldn't it be simpler for us to work toward a more attractive and economical civic future? A future where:

  new development is constructed in places that maximize existing public investment in schools, roads, water and sewer service, transit facilities and information infrastructure.

  workers have good jobs that are within walking distance or an easy commute by bike, bus, rail or automobile

   farm land is protected from encroachment so it can continue to be used to raise livestock and crops, providing a continuing and strong agricultural sector, and rivers, lakes, streams and ponds are pollution-free and provide recreational opportunities for residents and tourists alike       

  people can choose to live in older, thriving communities that are beautiful and unique, and that validate the reality that this is still the Empire State!

 

      Empire State Future is striving to reach these values through public education, citizen action, and petitioning our government. Working together, especially during this period of significant economic challenges, our coalition has high hopes for New York's future!       

With the aim of encouraging a pedestrian-friendly environment similar to that in Skaneateles, the Village of Manlius may soon see a redeveloped area where people are "strolling around, visiting outdoor dining, and listening to music," according to a page one story in the Syracuse Post Standard.

The proposed $16 million, seven acre retail-office development would bring two restaurants with outdoor seating, a drugstore, and other retail establishments into a six-building complex designed to flow into the village setting. It would be built in phases beginning in 2010. The 350 parking spaces provided would be at the rear of the buildings, allowing for an attractive, walkable streetscape in front.

Last year the village comprehensive plan "Vision Manlius" was adopted. It's a set of guidelines for fostering a pedestrian-friendly village with a rural feel, vibrant downtown business core, mixed residential and commercial development, and parks and natural areas, according to the report.

Read the full story at: http://blog.syracuse.com/east/2009/07/developers_propose_16_million.html

by Doug Greene 

Upstate planners live and work in a region that's been challenged by loss of jobs,  an antiquated system of local government, political discord, unfair distribution of state funding, and a migration of young people moving out. We have been watching and waiting for the State of New York to find the resolve, courage and determination to formulate a progressive and implementable Smart Growth Program. 

This year the Smart Growth Cabinet has made progress in adopting specific policies that begin to address economic development, environmental and equity issues -- the building blocks of sustainability.  The Upstate American Planning Association applauds these efforts, and we also support the Cabinet's initiatives such as:

  • Transit Oriented Design
  • Public Transportation
  • Tax Increment Financing
  • State Infrastructure Funding
  • Live Where You Work Incentives
  • Increased Historic Preservation Tax Credits
  • Community Preservation Act
  • Age Integrated Housing

      These are important steps and need to be implemented by the New York Legislature as soon as possible to start reversing a long trend of poor planning.  The Upstate APA wants to extend a challenge to everyone -- legislators, the business community, and all citizens alike -- to make our State great again.

 

            A long-time columnist for the Buffalo News takes issue with the view that demolition is the way to deal with blighted neighborhoods -- citing the revival he's seen on his city's West Side.

 

            "I saw a neighborhood deep into a seemingly irreversible slide into slumville. I saw it dig in its heels and turn around, with hardly any tax-dollar handout," he said in a recent column addressing a reported plan to demolish 5,000 homes in five years to deal with blight in Buffalo.

            He reports that the key to neighborhood rehabilitation is a group like the West Side Collaborative -- the "band of some 100 urban pioneers includes students, activists, block-clubbers, long-suffering homeowners and new blood, all united for revival" -- and their leader, Harvey Garrett.

            Read his entire column at:

http://www.buffalonews.com/cityregion/story/709907.html

A project to better connect important cultural, retail and civic assets in Downtown Syracuse's "Connective Corridor" holds the promise of much improved street designs that accommodate people and cyclists on a more even parity with automobiles.

The designs being considered create a distinct bike path through the city, offset from both the street and the sidewalk, with slightly raised bike lanes that are highlighted by painting them a distinctive color, according to the Post Standard newspaper.

Bike lanes consistently came up as a top priority for people attending public and community meetings on the Corridor, according to the paper, and the project is being funded with Federal transportation money and is coordinated primarily by the City and Syracuse University.

The full story can be viewed at:

http://www.syracuse.com/today/index.ssf/2009/06/new_designs_for_connective_cor.html

 

            The Editorial Board at the Post-Standard in Syracuse argues that the new government consolidation bill approved in Albany recently may not work as intended without strong leadership at the local level -- but "something needs to be done."

            "New York is groaning under the bureaucratic burden of thousands of local governments -- not counting hundreds of school districts exempted from this legislation. Central New York alone has 1,348 municipal entities, including 79 towns, 41 villages, 183 drainage districts, 256 lighting districts and 180 "miscellaneous" districts," the editorial declares.

            While mentioning the need for through study before instituting major governmental changes that could be set into motion by a small number of voters if the new bill becomes law, the editorial also notes that "without a persuasive leader willing to take risks and win converts, there still may not be enough votes to finish the job."

            Read the entire editorial at:

http://blog.syracuse.com/opinion/2009/06/a_boost_for_mergers_new_state.html

It may soon be easier to reduce the number of New York's more than 10,000 units of government and special districts, with the State Senate's approval of a consolidation bill that was passed earlier this week by the Assembly. The measure was proposed earlier this year by Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo, and Governor David A. Patterson is expected to sign it into law soon.

The new law would simplify the currently complicated process of merging or eliminating units of local government and special districts, allowing action by local officials or through voter initiative and referendum.

According to a report in The New York Times, the special districts are especially plentiful on Long Island, where they generate half the special district tax revenue in the state. These specialized local units can include sewer, water, and sidewalk districts as well as volunteer fire companies. Many of the districts are considered by critics to be little more than patronage mills, according to the report.

Read the full story at:

 http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/04/nyregion/04consolidate.html?_r=1&ref=nyregion 

Walking through Downtown Schenectady one has to be impressed by the amount of successful redevelopment that has taken hold from the center of the city to the east along its main thoroughfare, State Street. There are numerous vivid examples of what official attention and lots of state money and development agency bonds can do to revitalize an Upstate urban center.

Take a stroll along the same street to the west, however -- across Erie Boulevard where "Clinton's Ditch" and the Enlarged Erie Canal bisected the town from 1825 through 1918 -- and a very different impression is painfully apparent. You enter what the Albany Times Union describes as "what looks like a dying city, with vacant storefronts, crumbling sidewalks and empty parking lots."

The neighborhood is a gateway to Schenectady's 300 year-old Stockade District, and many existing hundred year-old buildings are ripe for development, according to Steve Strichman, director of city planning and development. The story reports that officials intend to focus on what can be done to leverage state and Federal funds to improve the lower State Street area. A study has begun with the Capital District Transportation Committee to examine street layout, sidewalk and curb needs, and opportunities for residential and commercial development.

Read the Times-Union story at:

http://www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=806758

            In a move long supported by the Smart Growth constituency in New York, the State Senate passed new Historic Rehabilitation Tax Credit legislation this week, and similar action is expected to follow in the State Assembly. A previous attempt to enact an earlier version of the tax credit law was vetoed last year by Governor David A. Paterson.

            In an article in the Syracuse Post Standard, Rob Simpson, President of the Metropolitan Development Association, is quoted as saying, "This is a game changer." The story quoted the senate sponsor of the successful legislation, Senator David Valesky, as saying "the credit will provide real incentives to stimulate Main Street and Downtown development that will create jobs, increase property values, and provide a better quality of life for all Upstate New Yorkers."

            The premise of the new law is to encourage re-use of existing structures by providing support that will help bridge the gap between the cost of rehabilitating older buildings and their market value.

            The full story can be viewed at:

http://www.syracuse.com/articles/state/index.ssf?/base/news-3/1243501048198750.xml&coll=1