Sprawl repair on Long Island gets a boost

In September 2010, New Urban Network reported on design guidelines aimed at greatly raising the standard of development in Ronkonkoma, a village in the approximately 490,000-population Town of Brookhaven, New York.

Now The New York Times is applauding a move to improve urban design in the area, including what the paper describes as an "innovative use of 'form-based' zoning" that could transform Ronkonkoma. A July 18 editorial says:

From high atop the five-story parking garage at Ronkonkoma’s Long Island Rail Road station, you can look far out at ... not much. There is an ocean of parked cars, gravel lots, auto-repair places, a gym and scatterings of corrugated sheet-metal boxes, the all-purpose architectural style in that part of Long Island.

The view all but screams “missed potential” and “poor planning,” and it is one that the Brookhaven town supervisor, Mark Lesko, wants to change. He is pushing a plan to redevelop 50 acres around the station with shops, homes, offices, public art and a convention center. He wants to turn an unlovely place into a cool destination.

In theory it should work. Ronkonkoma (stress on the KONK, not the KOMA), is in the middle of everything. It has the busiest station on the L.I.R.R. and abuts a regional airport, MacArthur, and a major freeway. It is minutes from a large state research university and hospital in Stony Brook, and about an hour by express train from Manhattan. It has an active civic organization, and Mr. Lesko believes he has “buy-in” from the community.

The supervisor believes the community's weariness with ugliness will help bring a new order to the area, The Times notes.

As we reported last September, the town hired ADL III Architecture of Northport, New York, to produce detailed 43-page design guidelines for Ronkonkoma. The town then had ADL boil the 43 pages down to just two pages — one page for urban standards, the other for architectural standards. Graphics help to communicate what the town is shooting for. 

Says The Times: 

Resistance to change, and tolerance of stagnation, have trapped many old suburbs in a downward cycle. Here’s hoping Mr. Lesko can break it.