Great Neck Plaza Mayor Jean Celender was honored last week with a Vision Long Island Smart Growth Award for a transit-oriented development zoning code, which she said ensures a “new era of sustainable development” in her village.
Celender accepted Great Neck Plaza’s second ever Smart Growth Award at Vision Long Island’s 11th annual ceremonial luncheon last Friday at the Huntington Hilton in Melville.
“Almost two years ago, we in the Village of Great Neck Plaza, recognized and began the process to revamp our commercial zoning district to promote mixed-use projects,” Celender said.
That process led to Celender being honored with a 2012 Smart Growth Award in Vision Long Island’s “Transportation Choices” category.
“We saw it as a way to compliment the many transportation initiatives we have undertaken to increase safety and improve ‘walkability’ in our village and also to make access to mass transit via the Great Neck train station, a hub in our village, more accessible,” Celender said.
Great Neck Plaza last won a Vision Long Island Smart Growth Award for its traffic-calming initiative in 2005. The awards are part of the not-for-profit organization’s goal of promoting bring best practices of community design advance growth and preservation on Long Island.
Joined by Great Neck Plaza Deputy Mayor Ted Rosen and trustees Gerald Schneiderman, Pamela Marksheid and Marion Green on stage at last week’s ceremony, Celender said her village’s transit-oriented development zoning code could lead to some “exciting” projects in the near future.
“Stay tuned because I believe a couple of exciting projects are going to be coming under this new zoning,” Celender said. “We’re very excited that’s going to be happening.”
The Great Neck Plaza Board of Trustees approved the transit-oriented development zoning plan, which is intended to allow new residential development in the village’s business “B” district, last April.
Under the new zoning changes, residential apartment units are able to occupy the top floor of any commercial building in Great Neck Plaza’s downtown area.
Residents are permitted to park in municipal lots at night, or forego the use of automobiles altogether, by walking to the village’s Long Island Rail Road station.
The goals of the law include increasing the number of residents living in the business district, giving property owners greater flexibility, stimulating economic activity downtown, along with promoting mass-transit oriented development and more affordable housing for retirees and younger adults, Celender said.
Any new projects under the transit-oriented development zoning plan require approval from the board of trustees through a conditional-use permit.
“The new transit-oriented development zoning in our B-business district encourages … development of an appropriate scale with flexible design standards to bring in new residents, thereby adding vitality and excitement in our downtown,” Celender said.
Town of North Hempstead Supervisor Jon Kaiman said Celender’s smart growth award was a fitting tribute to the mayor’s leadership in the area of transit-oriented development.
“Her introduction of transit-oriented zoning to the Village of Great Neck Plaza’s business district will facilitate mixed-use development featuring affordable rentals and retail and thereby help stem the exodus of young people from Long Island,” Kaiman said.
