Mapping a plan for LI's economic future

A deepwater seaport in Suffolk, a new bi-county economic development agency to market the region, and use of computerized tolls on high-occupancy lanes are among the proposals that will be unveiled Tuesday to make Long Island more viable over the next quarter century.

The $750,000 strategy plan, done by the main contractor, ARUP and Partners of New York, will be formally presented to the Long Island Regional Planning Council meeting at Republic Airport in Farmingdale Tuesday.

"Long Island faces an uncertain future," said council chairman James Cameron and its executive director Michael White in an open letter to residents. "Our thinking about the way we develop and plan for our future must change . . . or we will find ourselves fiscally, environmentally and socially endangered."

While warning Long Island and its 700 units of government have created a level of property taxes 21/2 times the national average, the plan itself calls for new regional bodies for water and waste management and economic development. It also calls for new fees for those who fail to conserve, waste resources and clog roads.

The new details follow the earlier release of the educational component of the plan in late October, which recommended bolstering low performing schools, relief from state mandates and regionalizing collective bargaining for local schools.

Latest parts of the plan obtained by Newsday include a recommendation for a feasibility study for a deep water port on the Long Island Sound and to identify potential sites. Such a move, the report says, could spur economic activity similar to Wilmington, Del., where a port on the Delaware River handles 400 vessels and 4 million tons of cargo annually and generates $180 million in taxes.

The plan also urges study of traffic systems that would allow autos with only a driver to join car-poolers for a toll in high occupancy lanes like a project under way at Capital Beltway around Washington, D.C., where rates range from 10 cents to $1 per mile.

The new plan also recommends concentrating new and more intense business and housing developments near mass transit for both high- and low-income groups and creating a "zero waste plan" with financial penalties to cut waste disposal costs and improve recycling.