As the deadline for ratification of the Comprehensive Plan - Jan. 1, 1999 - follows the quickly approaching Nov. 3 elections, the plan has become one of the many issues upon which candidates have been asked to comment. People wish to know who will throw their support behind the plan in its entirety or oppose certain measures. Many residents have themselves worked to make their views known at public hearings and workshops, as well as through letters to the Planning Commission. Also, a tremendous amount of confusion seems to surround the plan, and despite the availability of copies for interested residents, few people have actually seen it.

One of the major issues raised in the plan is the use of freight trains. In a July interview with Garden City Life, Assemblyman Greg Becker, now running as the Republican candidate against Carolyn McCarthy in the 4th Congressional District, had stated when asked about this issue, "I don't think the LIRR would do that [lease their lines to the private freight company, New York & Atlantic Railroad (NYAR)]." When it was clarified that this lease has already taken place Becker commented, "I don't see how the LIRR could share the lines and have it be safe." He added, "The way we have it now with the tractor trailers is better." On the contrary, the plan: contains Policy Recommendation IV.17 to "Facilitate the transportation of freight within the county and region by prioritizing intersection and traffic improvements along critical goods movement routes."

Plans to run freight along the Hempstead Branch of the LIRR were successfully halted - at least temporarily - by the efforts of concerned residents of the Village of Garden City who believed that this would spell disaster for their corner of Nassau County. With the aid of Village officials, as well as political leaders like Garden City resident and New York State Senator Kemp Hannon, the halt was secured in the form of a moratorium agreement, which NYAR signed voluntarily. With the end date of the moratorium looming and the recommendations to promote the use of freight in the plan, citizens such as the members of the Environmental Advisory Board of Garden City have attended hearings and sent communications to the County Planning Commission expressing strong concerns about any future use of the Hempstead Extension or the intermodal facility in Uniondale, a stone's throw from the Village of Garden City. (In fact fear of future use of the intermodal facility has become apparent in all aspects of Village life in Garden City. At a recent Garden City School District Board of Education meeting, Trustee Brian Rudy stated his belief that the use of the facility was almost certain and would make the Stewart and Clinton Avenues intersection situation by Stewart School even more dangerous.)

These concerns have been addressed in the plan with the assurance in Policy Recommendation IV.18, which states, "The County and State should continue to support freight service on the LIRR network, other than the Hempstead Branch and the Garden City freight intermodal terminal, as an important transportation mode for moving goods to and from businesses on Long Island." While this statement is reassuring to residents of St. James Street and the surrounding area in this part of the Village, residents who live on the Mainline, which runs through Garden City and communities across the center of Nassau County, are now without the County's support in any effort to keep freight from passing their homes, parks and schools.

An organization, which had originated in the spring of 1997 within the Village of Garden City, brazenly calling itself GC NIMBY (Garden City Not in My Back Yard), ignored the negative connotations of the NIMBY term and vowed to keep the freight trains off of the Mainline. The group gained momentum, obtaining over 800 signatures on a petition sent to County, State and Federal officials, demanding that a moratorium similar to the one created for the Hempstead Branch be signed for the Mainline. (The moratorium did call for a halt of municipal solid waste on all lines, but still allowed for shipping of other goods on the Mainline.) With the petition in hand, volunteers from the organization began to spread the word throughout the County, finally changing their name to Nassau NIMBY, calling for residents from Hicksville to Mineola and New Hyde Park to protest NYAR's plans to run freight. The group seems to have disappeared as suddenly as they were created just as their predictions for the County's support of freight are realized in the Comprehensive Plan.

The plan states, "The LIRR Mainline is the primary rail freight route on Long Island, with limited service to customers on the Babylon, West Hempstead and Port Jefferson branches. NY&A does not operate any service on the Hempstead Branch or to the Garden City transportation terminal." It goes on to explain that, "Nassau County accounts for 8.7 percent of NY&A's traffic, or approximately 1,050 carloads per year. NY&A's current volume of rail freight shipment is equivalent to approximately 30,000 heavy truck movements annually, or 200 per weekday." Despite a decline in freight shipments since the 1960s, the County believes that rail freight is very important to Nassau's future. The plan contends that rail shipping provides a positive alternative to "congested roadways," can be "more economical for transporting bulk commodities and long distance shipping of produce and other food products," and will bring products to industrial areas.

Not only is increased freight traffic seen as a positive initiative in their plan, but it goes so far as to recommend that, "The County Industrial Development Agency, County Department of Commerce and Undustry, State Department of Economic Development and community economic development agencies should incorporate information into their business promotion and retention efforts about the availability and efficiency of rail freight services as an alternative to trucking goods." This is a step that is not enforceable on the community level, but the suggestion is that chambers of commerce, Business Improvement Districts (BIDs), and other merchant organizations, etc. use freight possibilities in their attempts to draw new businesses to Long Island.

Another major discussion in the Comprehensive Plan related to rail lines through Nassau County is the topic of commuter rail service, an issue which affects the majority of Nassau County residents. One of the commuter rail improvements identified in the plan is the proposed construction of an east side connection that would connect the LIRR Mainline and Grand Central Terminal. According to the plan, "Penn Station, the last LIRR stop, is located on the west side of Manhattan and handles 78 percent of the total LIRR ridership. Although Penn Station provides walking access for many commuters to the Central Business District, approximately 40 percent of the riders have to transfer to the subway system to get to the eastern side of Manhattan." The east side connection has been proposed by the LIRR and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. According to the plan, "The connection would most likely utilize the lower level of 63rd Street Tunnel to Grand Central Terminal." This more direct access was once part of the Nassau NIMBY group's predictions as well. Rather than see it as a means for thousands of Nassau resaidents who work on the east side of Manhattan to get to work more easitly and economically, they saw it as a means of bringing in more freight trains and even predicted that the city would begin to ship garbage to be burned in the Hempstead incinerator.

Also, the LIRR is working on its program to eliminate the at-grade railroad crossings, which involves raising the tracks over Herricks Road and reconstructing the Mineola Boulevard Bridge. Further elimination of at-grade crossing in Mineola are in the design stages. While this has disrupted traffic to some degree in both Mineola and neighboring Garden City, the County is confident that these plans will improve rail service and safety and access for pedestrians and automobiles.

All residents along the entire length of the Mainline of the LIRR through Nassau County into Suffolk, will be impacted by another rail suggestion. The proposal is to construct another track to be added to the Mainline. Under Implementation Strategies it states. "The County should support the MTA's long range plans to construct a third operational track on the LIRR Mainline, whicxh would improve mobility and increase flexibility for intra-Island and reverse commute travel, as well as facilitate bringing LIRR service into Grand Central Station." It also states, "Nassau and Suffolk Counties should actively support efforts through the MTA capital needs program and NYMTC's transportation improvement program to develop a third operational track on the LIRR Mainline."

Other traffic initiatives include promoting bus service encouraging companies to develop rideshare programs, converting abandoned railroad right-of-ways into bicycle paths, creating more horse trails, developing ferry service and other water travel, staggering working hours among businesses to decrease the congestion during rush hour, and an increase in workshops for businesses and chambers of commerce to make information about transportation options available to employees. Another major implementation strategy is for the investigation of "the feasibility of extending the existing collector-distributor (CD) which is adjacent to the Meadowbrook State Parkway." The plan suggests that by creating a CD roadway, the "mainline of the parkway would have fewer ramps and function as a limited-access roadway" and "the CD roadway would have ramps to provide 'local' access." Of course residents along the Meadowbrook Parkway, commuters who use this route routinely, and businesses along the proposed path of the CD will all be impacted by this proposal, should it be implemented.

In addition to the parkway, the following roads were identified as suffering from serious peak hour capacity deficiencies: Post Avenue, Glen Cove Road, Broadway, Willis Avenue, Central Avenue, Jackson Avenue, Nassau Boulevard, Merrick Avenue, Corona Avenue, Roslyn Road, Ocean Avenue, Lakeville Road, Old Country Road and Merrick Road. Critical corridors listed are: the Long Island Expressway, Hempstead Turnpike, Sunrise Highway, Jericho Turnpike and the entire parkway system. Any reconfiguration, rehabilitation or reorganization of these major roadways will have a ripple effect on traffic throughout the County.

Recommendations for the development of the Hub area also include traffic proposals. The County lists in its section of the plan on the economy, the need to develop the Nassau Hub's role as "the County's regional center" and suggests that officials and investors create a BID for the Hub to aid in the development of plans for the area. The Hub plans focus on the need the County planners see for traffic initiatives in the Hub area. The idea of the "people mover" or monorail, similar to those found in Walt Disney World and The Bronx Zoo, has been discussed publicly by County officials before, but the suggestions for the Hub and its monorail were not to be found in previous drafts of the plan. The plan now states "The County should evaluate the effectiveness of alternate transit services within the Hub area, including a fixed-guideway transit system."

The monorail, of fixed guideway transit system, would act as a giant loop, connecting various points in the center of the County. The plan says specifically, "The County, local communities, developers and businesses in the Hub should use a variety of improvement and funding programs to create better pedestrian connections, linkages between land use (eg., office buildings, commercial areas, colleges, residential areas), and activities occurring at different times of the day and evening." New York State Senator Michael Balboni had commented in an interview with Anton Community Newspaper editors that one aspect of the hub proposals that concerned him was the likelihood that the County would need to condemn or seize property for the construction of the monorail.

In order to connect the colleges in the area - Nassau Community College, Hofstra University and Adelphi University - to areas of shopping like Roosevelt Field Mall and proposed new housing to be built in the Hub, the rail will need to pass through areas currently in use as private property and commercial property. While the plan states the "reuse of parcels and infill development" will need to take place, it does not address the full scope of where the fixed guideway will be laid down. Also, it does not provide an estimate as to how much this will cost and what the possible impact on the taxpayers throughout the County will be.

Dorothy Episcopia, among others from the Village of Garden City, one of the areas bordering the Hub, commented at the Sept. 28 public hearing that she was concerned by what she saw as a plan "laced with references to future development with no proposals for mitigation, projected traffic studies, or impact on the surrounding communities." She also echoed the argument made often during the evening that the current magnitude of the Hub is already significant and has had an impact on the downtowns of neighboring communities. She concluded, "I wonder if this ambitious document by the County can indeed protect and safeguard the County from itself."

Town of North Hempstead Councilwoman Doreen Banks spoke out at the same hearing and stated that she was opposed to a linkage station in Carle Place that would link the railroad to the monorail. She argued that the people of Carle Place do not want it and that she believes it "makes no sense." She added, "I recommend a stop in Mineola, which is the County seat." New York State Senator Kemp Hannon, in a recent interview with Garden City Life suggested that a stop in the Village of Hempstead would make the most sense, as there is no desire for one in Carle Place among the residents there, and no available space in Mineola. Hannon explained that there is available space within Hempstead by the newly renovated train and bus terminals area. This would provide an open space for the station which would connect an existing railroad station to the monorail, and create the least disruption in its construction.

During the public hearings held by the County, issues from hospital mergers, to the need for affordable housing for people of all walks of life, and the environmental aspects of further development, or as one women who spoke termed it, "The paving of paradise." Concerns that Nassau County has already become overdeveloped or urbanized in many communities were not eased when representatives from the County explained before the first hearing in Hempstead Village Hall that there were plans for further development initiatives in Hempstead, Mineola and Hicksville and there was no discussion on the impact on communities that surround these three hot spots such as Syosset, Jericho, Garden City, New Hyde Park, East Meadow, Levittown, etc.

Other initiatives in the plan call for the strengthening of downtown areas through Operation Downtown by the County, to provide funding for streetscape beautification projects and rehabilitation of targeted areas. Also, housing rehabilitation, new housing, and assisted living facilities are suggested to address the shortage of available housing, but the County plans to simultaneously crack down on illegal housing and overcrowding, which would result in displacement and possible homelessness. Plans to address this displacement are not given in the plan.

Also, environmental issues are raised as the plan states that wetlands on the south shore are expected to disappear, as well as streams and other freshwater bodies, but is limited in its suggestion for preservation of such areas. With proposals for new construction throughout the plan, the commitment to the environment seems in conflict with the majority of the plan. The plan lists a framework for environmental conservation, but the groups created by the County are not currently operating. The Environmental Management Council, according to the plan "has not been activated." The Nassau County Water Resources Board "was formed but has not met in a few years." The Nassau County Recycling Board "has not been activated." Studies and a homepage for the Internet are recommended, but definitive measures do not appear in the plan, with the exception of an environmental fund, which would provide money to acquire land for its protection by the County. One issue of concern is the fact that golf courses are listed as open space, a piece of land protected for the County's water supply, but golf courses routinely use pesticides and other chemicals to preserve their lawns, which are considered a likely contributing factor in causing cancer.

All residents of Nassau County can obtain a copy of the Nassau County Comprehensive Plan for themselves by stopping in at 400 County Seat Drive in Mineola. Libraries throughout the County have copies available for viewing as well. Letters to the Planning Commission regarding the plan can be sent to the above address (zip code 11501) and calls can be directed to 571-5843.