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Levy Seeks More Fed and State Transport $$$
Suffolk County is New York State’s largest suburban county but, County Executive Steve Levy told regional transportation officials on Monday, it receives a proportionally lower share of funding for transportation projects than any other county in the downstate area.
With over 1.5 million residents in Suffolk County, Mr. Levy focused his remarks at the New York Metropolitan Transportation Council’s (NYMTC) Regional Transportation Plan hearing on two areas: state assistance to develop a road parallel to the Sagtikos Parkway in Deer Park and, increased aid to Suffolk’s bus system.
NYMTC, an association of governments, transportation providers and environmental agencies, hosted the hearing in Hauppauge. It is the collaborative forum for regional transportation planning in New York City, Long Island and the lower Hudson Valley.
Currently under development, its 2010-2035 Regional Transportation Plan will lay out a long-range framework for improving the region’s transportation system. The Plan covers roads, bridges, freight, mass transit facilities, and its bicycle and pedestrian networks.
Transportation improvements and studies eligible for Federal funding will be largely defined through this Plan.
Sagtikos Parallel Road
Mr. Levy said that traffic congestion within the Sagitkos Regional Development Zone – a 2,500-acre tract straddling four townships in western Suffolk – will be further exacerbated as the area continues to experience explosive commercial, industrial, retail and residential growth over the next 5-10 years.
Working with town supervisors of Babylon, Huntington, Islip and Smithtown, as well as county, state and federal elected officials from the area, the County Executive is pursuing the construction of a road parallel to the Sagtikos Parkway, from Long Island Avenue north to the Long Island Expressway.
The region is the location for several approved or proposed high-volume developments which have raised community concerns about traffic congestion. They include:
•PJ Ventures (Commack Road, Town of Smithtown): 377,000 square feet of retail space on the site of the former Commack multiplex in the Town of Smithtown;
• Pilgrim State/Heartland (Crooked Hill Road, Town of Islip): proposal pending for 1 million square feet of retail space; 3 million square feet of office space and up to 9,000 apartments;
• Heartland Industrial, Phase II: (Town of Islip): proposed 1.3 million feet of industrial space;
New York State Department of Transportation Intermodal Freight Facility:
• Tanger Mall (Town of Babylon): 805,000 square feet of retail space which is expected to open by the end of this year.
While each of the projects may have merit, Mr. Levy said, collectively they would have" a significant impact on traffic congestion on many of the roads in this area", including Commack Road, Deer Park Avenue and Crooked Hill Road. A parallel road to the Sagitkos could not be constructed, he added without heavy reliance upon federal and state transportation aid.
“A tremendous amount of transportation aid is committed to urban mass transit projects, such as the Second Avenue Subway and the East Side rail tunnel," said Mr. Levy. While they "clearly have benefit to the many suburbanites who commute into the city,” Mr. Levy noted that quality of life in the suburban counties cannot be neglected.
 "We cannot have a situation where it would take almost the same amount of time for a driver in Suffolk to get from Huntington to Babylon that it would to take a commuter to get from their train station into Penn Station,” he said.
Bus Aid
Mr. Levy noted that despite the fact that Suffolk’s system covers three times the size of Nassau, Suffolk receives about 35 percent the amount that Nassau receives for bus mass transit ($22.58 million versus $57.78 million). And Westchester, with almost 600,000 people fewer than Suffolk, receives $47.97 million, well over twice what Suffolk County gets.
“Some will say that Suffolk does not get as much because we don’t have as comprehensive a system as our neighbors, but I will say that we don’t have as comprehensive a system because we don’t get the same amount of aid,” Levy emphasised.
The inequities extend beyond dollar amounts to percentage increases and local costs to run the system. For instance, Suffolk received a 12 percent increase in aid but Nassau’s dollars increased 20 percent. And Suffolk spends $17 million of local dollars to run its system compared to Nassau's $10 million in expense.
“We want our service to adapt to the growing and changing demographics of our county, including the need for Sunday service, but we will not be able to do so without dramatically increased state and federal assistance,” said Mr. Levy. “This inequity must be remedied."
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