When it comes to smart growth, some view Long Island as lagging behind the rest of the New York-New Jersey-Connecticut metropolitan area. New Jersey’s Transit Village program issued its first grant eight years ago. Westchester County’s new master plan identifies proposed “centers” for transit-oriented development. Meanwhile, many people still think Levittown when they think of Long Island – and local opposition to the LIRR Third Track doesn’t help the Island’s reputation as fearful of change.

Vision Long Island has been working to change this impression, and hosted its sixth annual Smart Growth Summit in Melville on Nov. 16. As evidenced by a stellar turnout estimated at 700 attendees, behind the reputation is real enthusiasm for smart growth.

At the morning plenary “State of the Towns” session, representatives from five of Long Island’s thirteen towns described smart growth projects in various states of progress, including a $100 million mixed-use redevelopment of downtown Riverhead. North Hempstead Supervisor Jon Kaiman discussed the importance of a community-inclusive development process. Brookhaven Councilwoman Connie Kepert challenged elected officials to “show the courage to vote their conscience” in promoting affordable housing and mixed-use development. The speakers were united in emphasizing the need for projects to mitigate traffic concerns.

The summit also included discussions on topics from affordable housing to downtown zoning, as well as on projects of regional significance, including the 321-acre Tallgrass mixed-use project approved by Brookhaven officials in October and the much-publicized 150-acre Lighthouse project which would anchor Nassau County Executive Tom Suozzi’s plan to densify and bring transit to the Nassau Hub area. Hempstead town officials got their first look at updated Lighthouse plans earlier this month.

Mineola has continued to implement a master plan which calls for a denser, mixed-use downtown and transit-oriented development around the village’s LIRR station. UrbanAmerica’s mixed-use plan for downtown Hempstead Village was eventually pulled by Mayor Wayne Hall, but the defeat seems due to valid concerns about a lack of affordable housing and the overall size of the plan, not because of opposition to smart growth principles. Earlier this month, Vision Long Island’s executive director Eric Alexander told Suffolk Life there were 50 smart-growth projects on the island, and LI Business News reported that the towns of Babylon and Huntington would propose reopening the Republic Airport LIRR station and building some sort of nearby development. On Election Day, voters in Oyster Bay and across Suffolk County voted to create and renew open space preservation funds, respectively.

There’s reason to believe that smart growth leadership may come from the state level as well. Earlier this month Gov. Spitzer announced his third regional smart growth initiative, which will distribute $500,000 for master planning in the lower Hudson Valley. Though much more money will be needed to plan land use in conjunction with a new Tappan Zee corridor transit line, the program is a good start and may be a prelude to further action in the Hudson Valley and a regional smart growth initiative for Long Island.

The missing piece is the MTA. Though the agency seems interested in transit-oriented development, it apparently hasn’t noticed the suburban smart growth trend.

The MTA could take a leadership role in promoting TOD by creating a formal transit village program and partnering with the many communities interested in developing around their transit stations. The earlier the agency does so, the more likely it is that smart growth projects will be in the ground before Gov. Spitzer, MTA CEO Lee Sander, and local officials interested in sustainable development are out of office.

A transit village program would be a no-brainer for the agency; residential development near transit stations has been conclusively proven to increase transit ridership (see, for example, the Transit Cooperative Research Program’s Report 102, Chapter 8). It’s also hard to imagine how the transit component of the Nassau Hub could operate without MTA assistance.

Local leaders are helping Long Island shed its old-fashioned reputation. It’s time for the MTA to join them.

Photos from Vision Long Island’s 2007 Smart Growth Summit. Taken from the latest issue of Vision’s Smart Growth News.