RPA released the findings of its 3rd Annual Long Island Mayors and Supervisors' Institute that was held at Adelphi University this past summer. The report details community design solutions produced by a resource team of experts that encourage transit-centered development in five Long Island downtowns, including Rockville Centre, Port Washington, Copiague, Speonk and Riverhead. Modeled on a national program and funded by the One Region Funders' Group, the Institute paired the resource team with four Town Supervisors and one Village Mayor over a multi-day work session.

Download Full Report (PDF 13MB)

Today, Regional Plan Association and the Nissequogue Stewardship Steering Committee released its groundbreaking plan to protect the environment of the 40-square-mile Nissequogue River watershed. The in-depth plan, developed over three years with a coalition of government, civic, business and environmental organizations, puts forward over one hundred actions to ensure the river's habitat, water quality, and open space are protected.

View the Press Release and download the report

The Special Analysis of the 2008 Long Island Index identifies Long Island's 100 downtowns as valuable assets to the Island's economic growth and housing needs. Developing downtown areas could meet half of Long Island's housing needs over then next 25 years, and could help retain young adults and others who are leaving the Island in disconcerting numbers. 

With funding from the New England Interstate Water Pollution Control Commission (NEIWPCC) Regional Plan Association led groups of local stakeholders to produce an environmental threat assessment report for four sites around Long Island Sound. The sites chosen are actually comprised of all or part of five Stewardship Areas designated by the Long Island Sound Stewardship Initiative including Lower Connecticut River, Milford Point and Great Meadows in Connecticut and Pelham Bay and Mount Sinai - Port Jefferson Harbors in New York. The primary goal of the Environmental Threat Assessment project was to identify, prioritize and locate specific, imminent threats to the Stewardship Areas so that resources and efforts can be most effectively directed to those places most threatened.

Download LIS Threat Assessment (PDF 6.7MB)

The highly developed shoreline that surrounds Long Island Sound makes any remaining wildlife habitat especially significant and generally precludes public access and recreation by an underserved population. Only 20% of the shoreline is accessible to the general public. Those public facilities that do exist are so overburdened that the visitor experience is diminished and sensitive natural resources compromised. Improved stewardship of these parks as well as private lands could greatly enhance their habitat value, reduce pollution impacts, as well as provide more ecologically sensitive public access.

Thanks to the support of the New York Community Trust and the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), RPA, Audubon New York and Save the Sound are partnering to promote the development of a Long Island Sound Stewardship System: A network of exemplary areas in the immediate coastal upland and underwater areas of the Sound. This system of protected sites will preserve the Sound's upland and estuarine natural systems while providing new recreation and public access opportunities for the 12 million residents of counties bordering Long Island Sound.

An early-on success of our efforts is New York State's recent acquisition of the Keyspan property in Jamesport, Long Island, the largest remaining expanse of open space on the Sound. Due to the advocacy of the Long Island Sound partners and others, 520 acres of open space has been preserved as a state park and working farmland - creating what could be a flagship site for the Stewardship System.