Last night, the Village of Farmingdale Board of Trustees unanimously approved a mixed-use development project that is poised to help revitalize the Long Island municipality’s downtown.
Bartone Plaza—with 115 apartments and 17,000 square feet of retail—will sit near the community’s busy Long Island Rail Road station, and the project will include a promenade that connects the station to downtown. With the approval, Farmingdale is taking a major step towards implementing its downtown revitalization initiative, which began with a 2006 community brainstorming session led by smart growth advocate Vision Long Island.
The plan divided candidates in the village’s recent mayoral race, and the victory of smart growth candidate Ralph Ekstrand shows that support for sustainable development has become a winning issue in Farmingdale and elsewhere on Long Island. Farmingdale residents, some of whom were once concerned about the potential traffic impacts of mixed-use downtown development, have now elected a smart growth-supporting mayor and seen the unanimous approval of a promising mixed-use development. As politicians catch on to the appeal of such projects, Long Island’s future will only become brighter.
The Bartone Plaza development coincides with a project that will add a second track to the LIRR between Farmingdale and Ronkonkoma, significantly improving performance on the commuter rail branch (according to the developer, the Farmingdale station serves over 4,000 commuters every day). The double-tracking is scheduled for completion in 2019—MTA Chairman Joe Lhota has called it his “number one priority” for LIRR.
I am glad that the MTA is double tracking the LIRR’s mainline aka Ronkonkoma Branch between Farmingdale and Ronkonkoma. This will mean more trains scheduled to use this rail line. However other problems most also have to be address such as more parking, pollution and congestion at the stations between Farmingdale and Ronkonkoma.
Various local governments will have to pay for the construction of more parking at these electrified stations to accommodate the increases vehicle traffic at these stations.
Increased traffic will also cause more pollution and congestion on roadways going to these electrified stations. Even more people, who live near non-electrified Long Island Railroad Stations, along the LIRR’s Upper Port Jefferson Branch, will drive to electrified stations.
These leaves many non-electrified stations along this line even more underutilized.
Public transport must also be simple and direct so that a person can get to their final destination. Here on Long Island, the LIRR however seems to have two classes service for their commuters. One type service is at electrified stations. These stations in most cases offer the criteria of convenient, reliable and frequent service. This type also offers simple and direct so that a person can get to their final destination. The second type is train service from non- electrified stations.
A solution to this would be combining of Metro-North Upper Hudson Division with a LIRR non- electrified line such as the Upper Port Jefferson Branch via Penn Station.
This would bring better train service to non- electrified rail lines access to Penn Station for the LIRR This would give the Long Island Railroads Upper Port Jefferson Branch more direct through train service to a Manhattan Railroad Terminal.
At present the LIRR Upper Port Jefferson Branch, only offers two peak round trips and some holiday service through service to Penn Station. This year they have modified their direct train service to Penn by offering one round trip on a modified weekend schedule during bad weather on Monday –Friday.
To say this could not be done is wrong, Amtrak a through train from Albany to Shea stadium Station on the LIRR’s Port Washington Branch. There were also plans for a daily train between Albany and Port Jefferson via Penn Station [See Newsday July 1991.] Metro-North was also thinking about trains to Long Island. These trains were supposed to go to stations near Long Island Beaches. [See Articles in the New York Times in June or July of 1993]. MTA should combine Metro-North Upper Hudson Division with a LIRR Non- electrified line such as the Upper Port Jefferson Branch.via Penn Station to stop this class system at the LIRR. Combining routes would give the LIRR Upper Port Jefferson Branch better train service to a Manhattan Railroad Terminal. Metro-North Upper Hudson Division trains once they reach Penn Station should continue on to Long Island. This helps manage the track space in Penn Station more wisely. I would also the LIRR use less scheduled trains at Penn Station because the Metro-North Train would take the place of the Long Island Railroad Train to Long Island from Penn. Crews from both railroads could be changed at Penn Station so that operate the Penn Station train in their own territory. Before this happens, LIRR train crews must be instructed on how to operate a dual mode train sets. Metro-North and New Jersey Transit have a similar arrange to operate a train from New Haven to Secaucus using a NJT electric train set. This train is operated during football season by both railroads
I would also give better sport fans access to trains to Yankee Stadium .Let’s find and spend public dollars wisely for all commuters who use our railroads and improve service.
[…] The movement forward on the Connect Long Island plan followed a recent announcement that $138 million in additional funding had been included in the MTA’s 2010-2014 Capital Program. This funding will be used to begin double track construction along the Long Island Rail Road from Farmingdale to Ronkonkoma, which would drastically improve service on the Ronkonkoma branch, allowing for greater reverse and intra-Island commuting. The first phase of construction will take place from Central Islip to Ronkonkoma, and when completed, will not only support transit-oriented development proposals at Republic Airport and along Route 110, but also redevelopment at the Ronkonkoma Hub and in Farmingdale’s downtown. […]
I love the Old Motor Parkway as it winds thru Alley Pond Park.I bicycle on it with my duthgaer weekly.I think they should have more History Markers and Plaques along the way there.People would love to know they are on a road that is 100 years old and was thefirst concrete road built in the United States.
[…] that the village will be Long Island’s next downtown destination, citing music events and the transit-oriented development project near the LIRR station that will include 154 apartments and 20,000 square feet of retail […]
[…] Farmingdale, NY Village Board — The village board unanimously approved a proposal to rezone downtown for mixed-use development, giving the green-light to a Farmingdale transit-oriented development project. […]