Hicksville residents, business owners, and stakeholders came out to a Northwest Hicksville Brownfield Opportunity Area (BOA) open house last week where they learned more about proposed revitalization and provided feedback on the draft pre-nomination study.
The Northwest BOA is bounded by the Northern State Parkway to the north, Old Country Road to the south, Cantiague Lane to the west and 106/107 to the east. The area includes major Hicksville landmarks including the Broadway Mall, train station, post office, Cantiague Park, Burns Avenue School, several businesses and manufacturers, and numerous residential homes. Several of the properties in the corridor lie vacant or underused, which identifies the area as eligible for the BOA program, which is meant to provide communities with money, land use and redevelopment tools for revitalization.
There are some “trouble areas” in the BOA site, such as along the railroad tracks and along Cantiague Rock Road, which because of Hicksville’s heavy manufacturing past, will probably require decontamination. Kathy Eiseman from Nelson, Pope and Voorhis, one of the consultants on the BOA project, said the state would pay for the clean-up.
“Physical contamination is one obstacle to redevelopment, so the next step would include identifying properties where you would do phase 1 environmental site assessments,” she said.
At the open house, which was held last Thursday at Trinity Lutheran Church, community members visited stations set up around the room where they could look at maps of the area, proposed plans for change and write in their thoughts on what they wanted in the community. The open house was part of the last stages of the prenomination phase, which is step one of the BOA project’s three step process, which got its start early last year.
At one station, residents wrote in comments about draft vision statements, saying they wanted Northwest Hicksville to “go back to being safe and beautiful” and that it “needs culture and arts.” One resident wrote in that the manufacturing area should incorporate rain gardens, windmills, solar, thermal energy and renewable energy. Forum attendees used blue stickers to indicate which of two draft community vision statements they agreed with more.
“Northwest Hicksville will be a destination that is vibrant, attractive, and clean-a healthy and safe place to live, work, play and raise a family. By taking the opportunity to develop vacant and underutilized properties, our goal is to usher this community into the 21st century and secure a high quality of life in a community that offers good jobs, quality education, convenient and safe access to public transportation, a beautiful environment and a full range of cultural and community amenities,” read the second of the draft vision statements, which had the majority of open house attendees’ support.
Another station had maps showing the four focus areas for revitalization along Cantiague Rock Road and Duffy Avenue: the train station, planned light industry, transitional and a tech park.
The Hicksville train station is a major part of the community’s downtown. The goal for the train station is to make it more than just a pass-through, but to make it a multiple use area that’s an extension of the downtown. The draft pre-nomination study proposed to meet this goal by allowing a mix of residential, office and commercial uses within half a mile of the station, encouraging development of public space and outdoor seating and rezoning properties by the station from light industry, to central business. Residents added that they wanted more security, more parking and more walkability in the train station area.
The planned light industry area intends to preserve Hicksville’s employment base by continuing a light industrial zone along Duffy Ave. and West John Street, by the former horse farm.
“Hicksville is unique in that it has a lot of industrial bases, and those are disappearing. In a way, it’s strength for the long term,” said Eiseman. “What we’ve found is people generally don’t mind if it stays, as long as it’s done in an environmentally clean way, and provides jobs and helps the tax base.”
The study proposed a public/community park in the area and encouraged recreational/entertainment uses. Many residents seemed in favor of preserving the horse farm property for public use, and for keeping the green spaces in the area, which has a mix of residential and industrial uses.
The proposed transitional area along West John Street includes the asphalt recycling plant (which is the suggested site for an affordable senior housing complex called ‘Cantiague Commons’). Residents wrote that in that area, they wanted a cultural center, community theater and more stores.
Eiseman said that the Cantiague Commons could serve to bring in a lot of new businesses into the area.
“Cantiague Commons could be a catalyst for change in that transitional area. We see that area from west of Cantiague Commons becoming less industrial in nature and more people friendly and walkable,” Eiseman said.
Tech Park is on Cantiague Rock Road and includes BOCES and the Department of Public Works. The proposed change to that area includes bringing in multi-story business buildings, and residents expressed a desire for bicycle lanes and urged developers to “be aware of traffic through neighborhoods.”
Residents also added that they would like to see more trees lining streets in the area, increased walkability and more affordable housing.
“I would like to see the area redeveloped for multi-family use for the next generation,” one Hicksville woman said. “If you could entice people to move to Hicksville, that would boost our economy in so many ways.”
“I’d like to see more apartments and condos by the train station, so that young people could take the train to and from work and live in that area…and behind that you would bring businesses in again,” said Hicksville resident John Ajello. “It’s still going to be a suburban town, but if they could make it a little more urban around that area, it could be a positive.”
However some community residents have become jaded over the years as many studies have come into the area, with minimal results.
“We’re having trouble fighting apathy because people have been studied so much, and seen nothing substantial,” said Joel Berse, president of the Northwest Civic Association. “There hasn’t been a year when something wasn’t being studied. They always have good intentions, but there have only been small materializations. There’s been nothing of any meat and potatoes, we need one thing with meat and potatoes and that might trigger the rest.”
Ajello, who has lived in Hicksville for 50 years, echoes the sentiment.
“There’s been a lot of talk, and conceptually this is all great. It looks like something is about to happen but how long before it becomes a reality?” asked Ajello.
The BOA project is split into three phases, pre-nomination, which is what’s happening now, nomination, which is where research such as noise studies and economic analysis in the area can happen (usually takes about two years), and the last phase is the designation phase, where the area is designated a brownfield that could be a catalyst for revitalization. Walter Parish, an environmental engineer from the New York State’s Department of Environmental Conservation Division of Environmental Remediation, says that if the project stays on track, it could be at the end of the designation in four years. But for that to happen, Parish says the community and town have to keep up the momentum.
“A lot of projects like this go to a certain distance but then stop. People lose interest, the town loses interest. But they have to keep it moving, and have a good agenda as to how they want to do it,” Parish said. “The Town has to review and approve it and the consultant has to produce the documents to move it through.”
And that interest and cooperation between all the involved entities will be essential if the area wants to get state funding. The state has provided over $75,000 for step one of the BOA redevelopment (the town provided approximately $15,000). Parish says that Hicksville will be up against other communities as they look for funding for the other two steps of the project.
“As more and more communities look to do this type of redevelopment, it becomes more competitive,” says Parish. “It’s important the community has a good vision and good consultant to present it and keep it moving.”
Parrish says that while the BOA project is underway, the town can still do different things to promote revitalization, the state just provides additional opportunities and funding.
Learn more about the BOA project and take the community survey at http://sustainableli.org/what-we-do/brownfields/hicksville-boa/
