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News
Debate at Dowling College's Roundtable on Open Space
Prompts Further Discussion at Suffolk County Planning Conference
Dowling College President Robert J. Gaffney asked participants at
Dowling College's Long Island Economic and Social Policy Institute
(LIESP) Roundtable for Long Island's Future to ponder the future of
Long Island's open space program. President Gaffney wanted to know
whether "Long Island has purchased too much open space or not
enough."
Discussing the results of the Roundtable, which reviewed government
intervention versus a free market approach, was LIESP Director Martin
Cantor who said, "while the consensus was for preserving the quality of
life, most believed that it doesn't preclude having a reasonable
amount of open space for future economic activity." Mr. Cantor
continued that opinions could be divided into several camps. "One
wanted to establish a non-partisan professional commission, with all
disciplines represented, to make decisions and balance extreme
viewpoints. The feeling was that there was danger in politics making
decisions in response to the loudest voices or the largest or most
influential contributor. This changes as public opinion changes. Policy
shouldn't do things that lock us into bad decisions."
Regarding those that supported the free market approach, where the
market should decide what is made available for open space, Mr. Cantor
said, "In the end, the market will be the ultimate decision maker.
There is danger, however, that market can be manipulated and can be
artificially influenced by bad policy along the way."
Other participants who had no problem with the market being the
ultimate arbiter of open space preservation through the Transfer of
Development Rights (TDR) program angrily said that "the transfer of
development rights program is a failure because the greater density
allowances provided by the program result in communities not wanting to
be receiving areas. Every community wants to be a sending area, but few
want to be a receiving area. The density, a fundamental element to the
TDR program, is what communities find objectionable."
The concluding consensus, according to Mr. Cantor, was that "natural
resources, especially on an island, are "resources." Open space
acquisitions should be evaluated to determine the effectiveness of the
program. We need to take care of what we have."
About Dowling College
Dowling College is an independent, coeducational college that serves more than 6,500 students at
its historic Rudolph Campus on the banks of the Connetquot River in Oakdale, NY, and the 105-acre
Brookhaven Campus in eastern Long Island and a business center located near the Nassau-Suffolk
border in Melville. Dowling offers Bachelor′s, Master′s, and Doctoral degrees in several
disciplines through its four schools: Arts and Sciences, Aviation, Business, and Education.
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