Nassau County Executive Thomas Suozzi brought his redevelopment trunk show to Oyster Bay on March 4. The day began with a bus tour for heads of local organizations and ended with a public forum at the Oyster Bay High School Auditorium. After the tour and the public meeting Mr. Suozzi said to residents, "You're very lucky you have a good consensus for what you want in Oyster Bay and Bayville."

The day was a good one for networking. During the bus tour people were able to speak to Mr. Suozzi directly, informing him of problems they are facing in the community. Mr. Suozzi was able to connect residents' with members of his staff who will hopefully help solve residents issues.

The Economic Development tour and town hall meeting was for Oyster Bay, Locust Valley, East Norwich, Matinecock, Mill Neck, Cove Neck, Centre Island and Laurel Hollow. The area is one of 35 Economic Development Areas the county has been divided into: it is EDA 4. Muttontown, Upper Brookville, Old Westbury and Brookville are in EDA 9; Glen Cove is EDA 3.

To combat the problems individual communities face as well as to further add to the benefits of living in each community, the county has drafted an Economic Development Plan for Nassau County that outlines broad goals for the future development of the county. The entire plan can be downloaded from the Nassau County Economic Development website at www.nassaucountynydevelopment.org. The plan divides the county into small units, allowing it to work with each community to create a vision based on what local residents would like to see in their neighborhood.

Mr. Suozzi explained the need for the plan saying that 50 years ago Nassau County became the home of the first suburban community, Levittown. The population of the county went from 400,000 during the '50s and '60s to 1.2 million in the 1990s. There were 25,000 farms and today there are only three, two of which are on the north shore: Rothkamp's in Old Brookville and Young's farm in Upper Brookville. He said in 1990 the tax base stopped growing, since there was little open space available for development.

He said, "After 50 years of development-driven growth, it is time to take charge of the future of the county and to plan what happens next. The county needs to expand its tax base because the cost of services continue to increase." He sees a need to provide jobs in the high tech industries (that don't pollute) and that pay substantial salaries. He sees a need to preserve the quality of life in Nassau County, the reason people want to live here.

Mr. Suozzi wants to restore and revitalize local downtowns. Developers, he said, prefer high trafficked areas but when the Oyster Bay area is charted for potential customers, he said, "the area of interest overlaps the water - where no one lives - thus making it less desirable for regional and national businesses."

The new county plan calls for cleaning up Brownfields as a way to recycle and reuse land. He said the marketplace prefers to go to Suffolk County and use undeveloped land rather than clean up or renovate an existing site. "We have to make it easier to clean up Brownfields," he said, several of which exist in Oyster Bay.

Mr. Suozzi is also interested in keeping about 100,000 people in the 25 to 40 age bracket, here on Long Island, and feels that affordable housing is needed for them. He sees houses, not developments as the solution and said, "If we put 20 units in each of the 35 EDAs, that would mean 700 units." He suggested they could be put on existing commercial property, and said an income of $65,000 qualifies for affordable housing.

Mr. Suozzi's staff has been working to implement the outreach into communities through a three part initiative. The first was to organize the tours; the second was his visits to EDAs and the third part is implementaion. Katie Schwab, former Oyster Bay Main Street Association executive director will work with this area in the third phase of the plan. During the bus tour she was able to help explain some of the problems the hamlet faces.

With the support of three Nassau County town supervisors and local mayors and with local input, the county will develop a detailed plan for the future of each community that will be incorporated into the Nassau County Master Plan. In this case, Mr. Suozzi asked that the Oyster Bay and Bayville plans be forwarded to the county to be included in their master plan.

At the town hall meeting, Mr. Suozzi said he is interested in preserving open space and that the north shore of Long Island is the area where there is still open space available for preservation. He would like to see farms come back to the area for quality of life reasons. He sees a great vitality in promoting Nassau County as "horse country," which the county is doing through their Horse of a Different Color promotion. He mentioned East Norwich resident Laurette Kovary who is one of the participating artists. Mr. Suozzi said in this area the Belmont Stakes is taken with a "ho hum" attitude, while it is an event he sees worthy of publicizing. The area has polo and horseback riding and dressage. He said 2,000 horses are born in New York State each year and 300 are sold in Nassau County. He said if the horse sales were held here the county would get $1 million in sales tax.

Mr. Suozzi sees the north shore as having great potential as a tourism destination and wants to link Glen Cove, Bayville and Oyster Bay for that purpose. A resident suggested adding Roslyn with its fine art museum as another component to attract tourists.

After Mr. Suozzi completed his PowerPoint explanation of his plans, he opened up the meeting to town residents. Their comments are reported in the article titled "Networking With the County."

During the town meeting on economic redevelopment called by Nassau County Executive Tom Suozzi, there was a great opportunity for networking. Local Legislator Brian Muellers announced that he has legislative grants available for downtown redevelopment. He suggested they would be for about $50,000 and said that Bayville Mayor Victoria Siegel had already applied for a grant.

That was good news, as other local residents wanted county money to aid in their plans. Mr. Suozzi told Joan Mahon, Main Street Association executive director, that there were federal funds available for the hamlet facade program. She said they need $25,000, to which the county execxutive replied, "If we can do it, we will," and directed her to Deputy County Executive Peter Sylver.

Judy Barnett, Oyster Bay Civic Association secretary, asked about the length of time they have been waiting for a no left turn at Stop and Shop. Mr. Suozzi directed her to talk to one of his team members.

Lisa Ott introduced herself as director of the North Shore Land Alliance, created to preserve open space. "We hope to do for Nassau County what the Peconic Land Trust did for Suffolk." Mr. Suozzi responded that he was delighted to hear that and wanted to meet with her next week.

Caroline DuBois, Oyster Bay Cove resident and an environmental activist said the Nassau County Open Space maps did not indicate the small fresh water wetlands and ponds along Cove Road. She said while they are not mapped, they have no protection. Mr. Suozzi said, "Meet with us. The problem will be corrected."

Ms. DuBois also suggested downtown bed and breakfasts as a way for people to walk to downtown from the train and then walk to the sailing school for classes at the WaterFront Center. "Can Bed and Breakfasts be started with Brian Muellers' legislative dollars?" she asked.

Oyster Bay Civic Association President Marie Knight told Mr. Suozzi about the plan for the village being worked on by the Oyster Bay Chamber of Commerce, Island Properties and the Main Street Association. She said they are thinking of the hamlet as having retail on the first floor of commercial buildings and apartments above which will create more housing. She asked for help with parking and traffic and said, "We may need funding help." Ms. Knight said things had been done: there is no parking in the vicinity of the Carvel store and there is handicapped parking at the post office. She said they don't want parking regulations enforced until the final decisions are made about them. In mentioning problems at the Hess station, she said that Budweiser trucks have been seen bringing in beer and the site is not allowed to sell beer. The town has given them a court summons.

Tom Suozzi said, "Oyster Bay is doing a fantastic job," and added that he wants copies of the plans for the village to be incorporated into the county's plans.

Susan Donovan said downtown revitalization had been talked about seven years ago at this same venue, the Oyster Bay High School. She said nothing will be resolved until all the groups work together. She added that Island Properties is not telling people what they are doing and added that without an elected official, such as a mayor, residents don't have a way to bring up issues they want changed. Mr. Suozzi said he would like to see more incorporated villages created.

Bill Sheeline with the Main Street Association asked Mr. Suozzi if there was a way to attract business to the hamlet, possibly by using incentives. Mr. Suozzi said you can't pick and chose whom you give tax exemptions to but said in the case of bringing in an anchor store, there was a possibility.

When another woman commented about not knowing what Island Properties was doing, Ms. Knight said her group would shortly be having an open forum with Mr. Poznanski of Island Properties, explaining what they are doing now.

Louise Harrison, Friends of the Bay executive director, also had a comment about Island Properties. She said that as owner of Commander Oil, Island Properties has the opportunity to open the downtown area to the waterfront. "People want to know if it will remain an oil terminal," she said. Ms. Harrison said she and Abraham Poznanski met in Albany with the New York State Coastal Resources people so that Island Properties would know what grants are available to them and to help in planning for the coastline and shore. From that meeting, Island Properties agreed in writing to go to the Town of Oyster Bay and prepare implementation strategy including their plans for the future. They have no plans as yet but they have ideas as does the state, she said. Ms. Harrison asked Mr. Suozzi if he would partner with them for proper development of the waterfront area and he said, "yes."

Mr. Suozzi said he advocates a 12-foot strip of the water's edge be kept available for bicycle paths and walkways for public access. He said, "If you can connect to the recreational area, that is a perfect nexus to go from the commercial to the recreational." He said there is money from the state to fund such projects.

Ms. Harrison said those sentiments are in the town's hamlet plan.

A Locust Valley man suggested to Mr. Suozzi that if they built a warehouse locally to transfer shipments from supermarkets it would save traffic on the LIE. Mr. Suozzi said, "People here don't want warehouses and trucks coming into the area." Mr. Suozzi said his concept is a ferry termininal in Suffolk County where there is a train line connection. It is a long term project but it would keep trucks from using the LIE. "It's a big idea," he said.

Rosemary Colvin said affordable housing is needed locally. "Affordable housing doesn't ruin a community. The sand pits are now Norwich Gates, which is an improvement," she said, adding that "the immigrant community are working hard for the American Dream." There was applause. There was applause earlier too, when Mr. Suozzi explained his reasoning about telling the police there was no money in the budget for raises, since the average policeman is making over $100,000 and they are getting retirement packages of $200,000.

Someone commented that West Shore Road is popular with bike riders but there is no bike lane and there are bushes on the shoulder of the road. "I agree," said Mr. Suozzi. "I'm a a bike rider as well." But he added, "The Mill Neck area residents don't want to change the road." Peter LoPipero who has led the fight against making West Shore Road a wider avenue spoke up saying they wanted to conserve the bucolic area of the road. "If you've seen the plans you would be appalled," he said, adding that altering the road would impact the wetlands. Mr. Suozzi acknowledged that these are legitimate concerns

"Sagamore Hill is the Windsor Castle of Long Island," said Rich Cieciuch of Rich-Bern Travel. "We can do tourism without cars for people coming by train with a trolley to take people to the local sites."

Henry Rappuhn suggested using the space taken by sumps to be used for further development. He said most of them are dry. Mr. Suozzi said there are 600 sumps in the county and they are doing an inventory of them to see what usage is possible. Mr. Rappuhn said Mrs. Moore at the Oyster Bay-East Norwich Public Library has a copy of the Nassau County Master Plan, all 55 pages of it, available for residents to see.

Terry Feeley of Upper Brookville said to the audience, "Pat yourself on the back for the Oyster Fest, the most successful event. Invest all that energy into downtown and you'll do well. Give yourselves credit!"

Ian Siegel, an aide to Mr. Suozzi, said he is available at iansiegel@mail.co.nassau.ny.us and that people can e-mail him ideas and comments.