LI Business, Political Leaders Champion Smart Growth as Economic Driver at CIBS Event

Brookhaven Town supervisor Mark Lesko, with microphone, updates real estate industry audience on plans to stimulate mixed-use downtown around Ronkonkoma Long Island Railroad, days before town issued RFQ launching bidding process. In a regional planning first, Lesko advocates using form-based zoning to transform underused acres surrounding busy Ronkonkoma station into lively downtown featuring homes, businesses, retail and worksites. Form-based zoning effectively writes land use and building codes around community preferences and planning goals, reversing the usual process. Warren Strugatch, left, of IQ Strategy Group, a Hauppauge marketing and business consulting firm, moderated the program, called 20/20 Vision: Long Island in the 2020s (and Beyond); speakers discussed how Smart Growth projects are driving economic growth in communities across the country. Renaissance Downtowns founder Don Monti, to Lesko's right, and Tri-State Transportation Campaign planner Ryan Lynch, to his left, spoke earlier that day, presenting a series of examples of successful Smart Growth programs nationally. Event was hosted by CIBS-LI, the Commercial and Industrial Brokers Society of Long Island, in Plainview.