Pennetta: Nassau's Mitchel Field of dreams

Forty years after Nassau County opened the Veterans Memorial Coliseum in a corner of windswept Mitchel Field, the opportunity to foster genuine economic growth in this vital space stands greater than at any time in the past four decades.

Mitchel Field -- centrally located, girded by north-south and east-west arteries, accessible to the Island's population centers yet buffeted from residential neighborhoods -- is the ideal platform for the kind of condensed, 21st-century pedestrian-oriented community so conspicuously lacking on Long Island. Currently, Nassau is reviewing the credentials of several potential master developers before turning one of them loose to develop the space.

It's a fantastic opportunity to energize the region, if politics can stay out of the way this time.

Disagreements between town and county snarled some earlier development attempts. Now, both Nassau County and Hempstead Town agree on the fundamentals: that developers can create as many as 500 new housing units in Mitchel Field; that a new arena can be built in this 77-acre space; and that developers can construct the amenities and commercial space, the stores, restaurants, schools, medical facilities, research space, complete streets and parkland that could make Mitchel Field Long Island's next big thing.

There's no timeline set for choosing the master developer, but the county should move forward with all possible speed -- the current Coliseum lease expires in two years -- and then stick to the plan, providing the committed support that will be essential for development to take place.

Above all, the county needs to empower the developers to do what they do so well: imagine, plan, finance and create the environment that attracts people and retains businesses.

The county should consider a two-tiered mixed-use plan that keeps the Coliseum open for the life of the current lease. Around it, developers can construct an improved, modern arena -- whether for the Islanders or another team, as the market will bear -- housing and more.

Based on the engineering and transportation studies it commissioned, Hempstead has written into zoning law ordinances that call for a mix of price-restricted and market-based housing. The town will allow up to 500 new housing units, including at least 100 units marketed to occupants based on income restrictions. Given the animosity that greets nearly every attempt to construct new housing on Long Island, political support for this effort is essential.

So is the need to abandon "politics as usual." Government officials must resist the temptation to dictate growth via public subsidies. Instead, they must step back and allow free-market economics to drive development.

They've got good clay to work with. The density and height restrictions, as well as preferred uses, codified by the town and endorsed by the county, encourage the kind of vital, pedestrian-focused communities that are youthful in spirit, engaging and centralized by design, and broadly affordable.

Intrinsic to economic development is appeal to job-creators. Mitchel Field can attract a broad array of private sector employers: restaurateurs and retailers, software developers and engineering firms, marketing agencies, design boutiques and more. The people who will work there can live there, and if planning is done right, residents can get around without everyone needing to own a car.

Considering the importance of small companies to employment opportunities, let's defer taxes for qualified employers on the basis of job creation, and hold them to their promises. We can share the savings with developers so they encourage from-the-ground-up entrepreneurship, too. If companies fail to create jobs, have them pay their back taxes plus interest. No exceptions.

For much of the 20th century, Long Island was a place that attracted people who wanted to start companies, build businesses and live in a beautiful place. Mitchel Field offers a 21st-century version of the same ideal.

David Pennetta is president and chairman of economic development of CIBS/Commercial Industrial Brokers Society.