Nassau County Executive Thomas Suozzi recently addressed members of the media to discuss some of the topics pertinent to Nassau County's communities. Since he has taken office, most of Suozzi's time has been spent dealing with Nassau County's fiscal problems, but the communities and residents are important to him. He addressed some issues concerning Syosset and surrounding communities.

Overdevelopment and the decline of local downtowns are big problems in Nassau County, according to Suozzi, and this is something Syosset has been dealing with recently.

"Nassau County is the first suburban county in the United States. As a result, we are the first county to deal with the problems of a mature, urban county - crime, overdevelopment, traffic, etc," said Suozzi. "Redevelopment of Nassau's downtowns is a collective effort between government, business and the community. Sometimes, though, it is necessary for government to step in and facilitate the means for private industry to flourish."

The controversial 39-acres of open land in Syosset, known as the Cerro Wire Property, is something Suozzi spoke about. Developers attempted to build an 850,000 square foot mall on the property, an application that the Town of Oyster Bay Board rejected. The issue is now in the hands of the courts during the appeal process.

"I have always been a strong supporter of seeing brown fields and industrial sites recycled, reused and brought back to productive use," said Suozzi regarding the Cerro Wire Site. "There are economic benefits as well as municipal benefits to the development of this site but we must again make sure that no matter how this property is developed it has no negative impact on the surrounding neighborhood. The final project must be in harmony with the local environment and neighborhoods."

Currently, neither Nassau County nor the Town of Oyster Bay have a master plan and this is something that Suozzi believes needs to be in place so there is an overall plan for development and preservation throughout the county. "We need to bring in all of the involved players and build a consensus of what is best for the community," said Suozzi. "There are many opinions and we need to hear from the civics, local politicians, residents, developers, real estate owners and others involved in the planning of development. We need to reuse and recycle land and preserve what open space is left."

The parking and railroad dilemma has been one plaguing Syosset residents for some time. Parking in downtown Syosset is very difficult and this affects the many businesses that are located there. Many ideas have been suggested lately and one is the reopening of the Landia train station.

"Everything should be considered [when thinking about reopening the Landia train station]," said Suozzi. " Oyster Bay Town Clerk Martha Offerman, in particular, has worked hard on researching this issue and has offered some constructive solutions to the problem. The reopening of the station hinges on the Town of Oyster Bay's ability to build the necessary parking lot, and the Long Island Rail Road being able to build the new train station. The addition of the projected 3,000 parking spaces would be a great improvement over the 400 spaces at the Syosset train station and would help alleviate the traffic and parking problems there, and at the Hicksville train station as well.

"However, too often in Nassau County urban development has gone unchecked and has begun having a negative impact on our neighborhoods. The increased traffic and congestion that Landia Station might bring to the surrounding neighborhoods must be considered. If the station is reopened we must work hard to see that it has as little negative impact on the quality of life as possible," concluded Suozzi.