We Paid How Much?????????

If you have not read Rick Brand's column in yesterday's Newsday - do so right away! In fact, I have posted it below. It's must reading.

The numbers are staggering. Dick Amper can say all he wants about deer not going to school but the facts remain clear: Suffolk County has preserved plenty of property at an extreme cost to the Suffolk County taxpayer. Sadly, some of the money that went to taking property off the tax rolls could have been used to sewer the 70 percent of Suffolk County that is without sewers. Had this taken place, Suffolk County could have progressed in such a way that the developers could have built with the kind of density that would have enabled local municipalities to preserve nearly as much acreage - AT NO COST TO THE TAXPAYER!

Think about that as you contemplate just how much money $3.5 billion is.

Newsday.com
Cost of Suffolk land preservation programs questioned
Rick Brand

October 5, 2008

After three decades, Suffolk's smorgasbord of land preservation programs have delivered 34,000 acres into the public domain, but they've come at an eye-popping price tag of $3.5 billion. Or so says Martin Cantor, head of Dowling College's Long Island Economic and Social Policy Institute.

Cantor says it may be time to rethink new land purchases, especially in these tough economic times. Warning Long Island is at a crossroads, Cantor says government should redirect far more money to sewers to protect groundwater and bays and allow downtowns to develop more densely for young and old.

Those are the controversial conclusions of a new 29-page report, which Cantor acknowledged was funded with $20,000 from the real estate industry.

"The numbers we're talking about are very big," said Cantor. "And there should be a public debate before we take the next step. Up to now, we've only had discussion from people who want to buy land."

Environmentalists, who telephone conferenced Friday over Cantor's impending report, called the findings superficial, skewed and bought and paid for.

"Tobacco companies tell you smoking is good for you, oil companies say 'don't go renewable' and developers say 'don't save land,'" said Adrienne Esposito of Citizens Campaign for the Environment. "Marty Cantor is the Darth Vader of Dowling. He's gone to the dark side."

However, some are taking notice. "The findings are certainly eye-opening," said Suffolk Comptroller Joseph Sawicki, who was briefed by Cantor on preliminary findings. "And they have to cause any official to pause and seriously analyze how much deeper we want to go in purchasing open space, particularly with the economic crisis we are facing."

The Dowling report, which will get its first public airing Friday at a breakfast on the college's Oakdale campus, is likely to create an intense and lasting debate. The report is a new offensive by the real estate industry, which had success last year in helping to defeat a proposal to create a preservation fund in Brookhaven based on a real estate transfer tax. It was the first environmental defeat in 24 local land referendums.

In his report, Cantor maintains Suffolk and its towns have spent $1.3 billion in property, sales and real estate transfer taxes to borrow the money to acquire 34,000 acres - about the same acreage as Long Island's state parks. - and has lost an estimated $700 million in property taxes from lands taken off the tax rolls.

Cantor adds the county legislature has authorized $366.8 million for open space purchases through 2013, costing another $1.1 billion in property taxes.

The preservation, he said, will cost the average Suffolk household at least $10,000. When the county completes its plan to buy another 35,000 vacant acres by 2031, it will have cost the average homeowner an additional $71,000 and remove nearly 32,000 homebuyers from the residential marketplace.

But Richard Amper, executive director of the Long Island Pine Barrens Society, called Cantor's numbers "ridiculous," saying land purchases so far have cost $1.2 billion, and that when divided by Suffolk's population the cost is only $454.61 per person. He called Cantor's projections of lost tax revenues wrongheaded.

"The reason Long Islanders are paying 2 1/2 times the national average in taxes is the cost of government greatly exceeds the taxes collected from residential development," he said. "Preserving open space controls taxes because deer do not go to school."

Amper said the reason developers have gone on the offensive is to protect themselves amid the financial crisis. "They are flat on their back and don't want the land to disappear before they can get up off the canvas," said Amper.

Cantor said he expected controversy but feels the region needs to reinvent itself for the good of the next generation, especially when there's no federal money for sewers, and experts say land already saved can protect the water supply into the next century.

"We're not against open space," said Cantor, "But you have to ask the hard questions."



THE PLAYERS

Dowling institute's Martin Cantor

Environmentalists Richard Amper and Adrienne Esposito



THE ISSUE

Cost and future of public land preservation



WHAT NEXT

Roundtable forum Friday in Oakdale

Builders to the rescue, face flak anyway

Amidst the reports this past week about the economic turmoil and financial chaos that looms on the horizon were two news stories about builders looking to develop significant housing projects on Long Island.

Given the Island's well-documented housing shortage - not to mention the utter lack of building activity of late that has idled every aspect of the industry as well as dried up several revenue streams for local municipalities - you would think that such announcements would be greeted with huzzahs, if not a parade down Main Street.

But no - this is Long Island. Both stories featured headlines highlighting the fact that local civic groups plan to fight the development.

The first, "Groups to fight planned development in Middle Island", appeared in Newsday on Wednesday. The following day saw this article, "Hicksville developer struggles to win over Islandia neighbors", appear in the Long Island Business News Flash Report.

There is hope, however. To her credit, Brookhaven Councilwoman Connie Kepert supports the project. She gets it, if you will, and is quoted in the article as saying, "the 39-acre project would be a boon for Brookhaven's tax base and fit into the town's development plan for Middle Island. She said the project includes about 18 acres of open space and would be a walkable, urban alternative to typical Long Island sprawl."

The article also mentions that the developer, Frank Weber of Sandy Hollow Estates, has the right to build 34 single-family homes on the property under the current zoning. Kepert smartly points out the sewage treatment plant planned for the development would release less nitrogen than 34 homes built without the plant.

The developer plans to leave 18 acres for open, walkable space at no cost to the local taxpayer. That fact is buried six paragraphs into the story, however, and is conveniently ignored by Dick Amper, the leader of the groups vowing to fight the effort.

The second article reports on Pinewood Development Corp.'s plans to build a condo community where a horse farm now stands. The neighbors say the "traffic will be a nightmare," even though the horse farm itself at one time accommodated hundreds of customers and tractor-trailers coming and going all week long. The owner of the horse farm, according to the article, can no longer keep his farm operating at a profit and is perfectly within his right to sell his property to Pinewood.

The Long Island Builders Institute will keep a close eye on both projects. We salute Councilwoman Kepert for her willingness to consider the big picture, although we fear in doing so we will make her a target of Amper's Army. Of course, her day job involves teaching teenagers in high school so we have no doubts about her ability to deal with the angst Amper plans to send her way.