Smart Growth Suburbia?

The Lighthouse at Long Island is a proposed 5.5 million sq. ft. of mixed-use development covering 150 acres of Nassau County. The developers see it as a new form of smart growth suburbia.

1 minute read

June 19, 2009, 2:00 PM PDT

By rbregoff

"Thomas R. Suozzi, the Nassau County executive, who touts the Lighthouse as the centerpiece of his vision of a smart-growth, new suburbia, always begins his sales pitch for the project and the idea behind it by saying it's not a threat to the Long Island of myth and fable.

Ninety percent of the county will stay the same! We love our single-family homes, beaches and waterfronts! It's not about becoming the sixth borough!

'We don't want to be postsuburban,' he says. 'We don't want to be a new urbanism. We want to be a new suburbia. We want to keep the good stuff about suburbia and get rid of the bad stuff about suburbia. But the old model of suburbia began 60 years ago with Levittown. It's no longer sustainable.'"

Thanks to Rob Begoff

FULL STORY: In Suburbia, a Megaproject Offers Hope

Thursday, June 18, 2009 in The New York Times

Community / Economic Development Housing Land Use Urban Development New York New Urbanism Suburbs Long Island Mixed-Use Development View More

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