Protecting Environmental Bond Recommendations

The Nassau County Planning Commission is reviewing the Environmental Bond Act recommendations made by the Environmental Program Advisory Committee on March 6. County legislators will vote on the recommendations sometime in May. If approved, the projects will be funded by the $50 million environmental bond referendum voters passed in 2004 by a margin of more than 4 to 1.

The Glenwood / Glen Head Civic Association urges the Planning Commission and the Nassau County Legislature to accept the Advisory Committee’s recommendations without alteration. We believe the application and review process was painstaking, fair and objective. We believe that altering the recommendations made by the committee would undermine public confidence in the legislature and in the environmental program that voters intended to support.

The Advisory Committee received 262 proposals and recommended 57 projects. All of these projects represent valuable improvements that will benefit everyone who lives, works, or plays in Nassau County. The list includes 15 parcels for open space acquisition, improvements at 18 parks, 17 stormwater improvement projects, and 7 brownfield clean-up projects.

One of the parcels recommended for open space acquisition is on the Glenwood Landing Waterfront; five others are in the immediate vicinity of Hempstead Harbor (see "GWL Waterfront Scores as County Priority," March 10). The remaining 51 projects are well dispersed throughout the county, from east to west and north to south. The civic association supports each and every one of these recommendations with full confidence in the criteria that the Advisory Committee established to evaluate the applications and in the judgments the Advisory Committee made based on these criteria.

Please consider contacting county legislators and the Planning Commission to express your views on this matter (see below). A press release titled Suozzi Advisory Committee Announces Proposed Uses for $50 Million Environmental Bond and the Environmental Program Advisory Committee Report are posted on the Nassau County Website.

The public servants below can be reached at 1 West Street, Mineola, NY 11501; legislators can be emailed directly from the Legislator Page of the Nassau County Website.

Patricia Bourne, Director, Nassau County Planning Commission (516-571-5847)
Lewis Yevoli, Chairman, Nassau County Planning Commission (516-571-5844)
Legislator Craig Johnson, LD 11, including Glenwood Landing (516-571-6211)
Legislator Diane Yatauro, LD 18, including Glen Head (516-571-6218)
Legislator Peter J. Schmitt, Minority Leader (516-571-6212)
Legislator Judith Jacobs, Presiding Officer (516-571-6216)