New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced the recipients of the 2013 Regional Economic Development Council (REDC) grants last week. This third round of grants included several TSTC-supported projects that advance smart transportation policy and sustainable development in the Downstate and Capital Regions. Here are the highlights:

Capital Region:

• Albany County Rail Trail — This $1 million project will construct 5.5 miles of a proposed 9.3 mile shared-use path along a former rail bed in Albany County. Funding from the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority’s Cleaner, Greener Communities (NYSERDA CGC) program will assist in the final design and construction of the path.
• Albany 2030 Sustainable Code Project — The $300,000 NYSERDA CGC grant will help update the Code of the City of Albany to allow for the incorporation of sustainable design and smart growth principles, with an emphasis on zoning and development regulations.
• Community Recovery Components: Design and Construction — The Town of Prattsville will receive a $807,000 grant from the Department of State’s Local Waterfront Revitalization Program (DOS LWRP) to help advance the Town’s community reconstruction plan to restore and revitalize Route 23 (Main Street), which was devastated by Hurricane Irene flooding. The project will include streetscape enhancements and the design and construction of a new waterfront trail.

Long Island:

• Long Island Park & Preserve Access Improvement Project — Nassau County will receive a $200,000 Department of Parks Rail-to-Trial Program grant that will initiate planning and design, as well as begin first phase of construction, of the first interconnected set of pathways for walking and cycling between the Long Island Sound to the Great South Bay and Jones Beach.
• The Glen Cove Waterfront Connector — The City of Glen Cove will receive a $2.5 million Empire State Development (ESD) grant to reconstruct the Waterfront Connector, which incorporates Complete Streets designs for biking and walking and will link to numerous transit modes. The project, long supported by Tri-State, will support the redevelopment of a brownfield into a mixed-use redevelopment supporting residential, commercial and retail space.
• Connect Long Island Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) and East Farmingdale Redevelopment Study — Suffolk County was awarded a $1.5 million NYSERDA CGC grant to advance the creation of Long Island’s first BRT demonstration corridor. The funds will help retrofit and re-brand six buses, construct BRT stations, pedestrian infrastructure and other BRT technologies while the Town of Babylon received $500,000 in ESD funds to undertake a redevelopment study for a mixed-use application at a key site along the potential Route 110 BRT corridor. In October 2012, Tri-State held a BRT symposium in support of a potential Route 110 BRT project, especially if it was linked to smarter land use along the Route 110 corridor.
• Wyandanch Rising — The project, one of Tri-State and the One Region Funders’ Group initial Transit-Centered Development grants, continues to bear fruit as the Town of Babylon received additional funding for the high-profile mixed-use development. Babylon received $1 million in ESD funding to install an ice rink directly adjacent to the station’s intermodal plaza.

Mid-Hudson:

• Complete Streets projects in the City of Kingston — Grants totaling over $2.273 million were awarded to the City of Kingston for projects to help support the implementation of Kingston’s Complete Streets resolution, which Tri-State helped adopt in 2010. Projects supported by the grants include the establishment of a trail on a historic rail bed, the design of multi-modal connections along between the Hudson River and Rondout waterfronts to the core of Kingston in Midtown and the implementation of the Kingston Connectivity Project, a project that implements a rail trail network throughout the city.
• Transit Hub in White Plains — The City of White Plains received a $1 million NYSERDA CGC grant to plan and design for the redevelopment of an existing transit hub into a multi-modal transportation center that will support surrounding economic development and revitalization initiatives.
• Adriaens Way Downtown Yonkers Trail — The $160,244 Department of Parks, Planning and Acquisition grant will allow Groundwork Hudson Valley to to undertake a feasibility study for the design and construction of a TSTC-supported rail-to-trail project stretching from the Downtown Yonkers Waterfront to the 242nd Street subway station in the Bronx.

New York City:

• Bus Rapid Transit in Queens — The New York City Department of Transportation received over $2.1 million in a NYSERDA CGC grant to implement a Select Bus Service (SBS) project in Queens. It is unclear from the REDC documents where this project will be undertaken, but it is good news for incoming New York City Mayor-elect Bill de Blasio who has committed to building 20 new SBS Routes during his administration.