Better for LI to grow together

The way out of our difficult present -- too few jobs, too much traffic, not enough housing -- is an all-in-it-together regional future. But without last-minute new funds, the only regional planning entity Long Island now has will die at year's end. So, what to do?

The Long Island Regional Planning Council arose in 2008 out of a renewed emphasis on regional thinking by two county executives, Thomas Suozzi in Nassau and Steve Levy in Suffolk. The council produced a plan that lays out strategies for reducing inequalities in our schools, creating jobs, developing mass transit, and paring the expensive fragmentation of governments -- through 2035.

The council delivered the plan, but budget woes delivered a blow to the group itself. Nassau will no longer fund its share of the council's budget. Under the law creating the agency, Suffolk is forced to follow suit. So the council has only enough cash to hang on until Jan. 1. The executive director, Michael White, has returned to practicing law. The chairman, John Cameron, is seeking alternate funds. He's optimistic. Others, not so much.

What now? We have to pull together, not fly apart; put behind us past grumbles about the council and its plan, and focus instead on the future.

The idea of a council was controversial, but most New York counties have opted for regional councils. Ours includes representatives from the towns and villages that do local planning and zoning. Some planners didn't want any of them on the council. Some advocates wanted more. The counties compromised.

As to the plan, some critics said it wasn't a real academic land-use plan. But the council chose to get beyond land use and transportation to broader strategies. Carissa Schively Slotterback, a University of Minnesota planning professor studying this and other regional plans, said its emphasis on educational equity and governance was smart, arising organically from the region's needs.

Overall, the plan's strategies are worth pursuing, and there are hopeful signs that other entities may step up to do that.

Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo is launching regional economic development councils, including one for Nassau-Suffolk, that could help oversee implementation of those strategies.

The Obama administration is putting up a lot of funding for regional planning, and the council played a big role in getting both counties and the council a share of a $3.5-million Sustainable Communities grant. The council's cut, about $80,000, is for developing a fairer mix of housing that working families can afford. Some entity, perhaps the Regional Plan Association, the independent urban research and advocacy group that will administer the $3.5 million, should pick up that ball from the council.

Meanwhile, the planning commissions of the two counties have been working to improve their coordination. That's a plus.

Suffolk's planning department is updating its comprehensive plan, tapping the ideas of the council's 2035 plan. The first volume of that new county plan, a demographic analysis, is due in early August. The situation is less rosy in Nassau, which is folding its planning function into the Department of Public Works. That may save money, but it must not be allowed to lead to indifference to regional planning.

The U.S. Economic Development Administration has a lot of grant money to create jobs, but regions need a strategic economic development plan to get it. Long Island didn't have one, but the council, the state's Empire State Development agency, and Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) got the EDA to accept the 2035 plan as a temporary substitute. One of the crucial first jobs of the state's new regional economic development council will be to make that stopgap solution more permanent.

The council has done what it can. Others must begin now to step into the breach. The counties, the regional economic development council, and our leading business group, the Long Island Association, must all play roles in keeping regionalism alive. We can't build our economy, develop rationally, and prosper unless we find ways to work and plan together as a region. hN