Press Releases

October 2, 2002
Land-Use Conference Unites East End Officials, Environmental Groups

Southampton College Think-Tank Event Aims for Sustainable Planning

Contact:
Darren Johnson
(631) 287 8313
Fax: (631) 283 4081

A new forum united local government officials, environmentalists, business leaders and planners at Southampton College on Tuesday, October 1. In his address, Keynote Speaker Thomas Hylton attacked suburban sprawl and other effects of 20th century planning and said that viable communities need to revisit the days of clustered development. "We have turned our landscapes into junkscapes," he said. "This form of development is not sustainable."

Hylton won the Pulitzer Prize for his community journalism that detailed struggles of suburban development vs. land preservation similar to those we face on Long Island. Hylton is president of the non-profit environmental group Save Our Land, Save Our Towns in eastern Pennsylvania and is a pro-bono advocate of smart-growth planning and traditional towns that house people of all ages, races and incomes.

On Tuesday, Hylton offered a gameplan for revitalizing downtowns and redeveloping existing buildings that are more centrally located, rather than building on the outer reaches of a town. "Suburban sprawl does not work at all in the long run," Hylton said. "Old-fashioned urban clustering builds communities that don't discriminate, have good mixes of race and social status, thus promoting upward mobility, and give people a stake in their society."

A part of Southampton College's Environmental Conference Series, "East End Land Use: Creating New Initiatives" was an in-depth panel discussion of local planning issues. Participants included Suffolk County Executive Robert Gaffney, New York State Assembly member Patricia Acampora and officials from Eastern Long Island towns including Southold Superintendent Josh Horton, along with representatives from Group for the South Fork, the Nature Conservancy, the Long Island Farm Bureau, the Pine Barrens Society and the Peconic Land Trust.

According to Scott Carlin, co-director of the Institute for Sustainable Development and an Associate Professor, the goal of the conference was to "get a diverse range of stakeholders talking about regional priorities. What new initiatives do we need to focus on? What are the most effective new strategies for protecting and enhancing local natural resources without compromising social and economic needs, like affordable housing?"

The event was sponsored by the Institute for Sustainable Development at Long Island University and McMillan, Rather, Bennett and Rigano, P.C.