Long Island parks, water quality improvements among targets of $16.7 million in grant funds

Restoration of a park near the Nissequogue River, preservation of 110 forested acres in Riverhead and planning for reclamation of industrial land along the Long Beach bayfront are among the projects receiving grants through a state initiative that has so far poured more than $1 billion into Long Island economic development.

The latest round of state aid announced this week through the Regional Economic Development Council Initiative will steer $16.7 million to Long Island for nearly 30 projects across the region.

More than a dozen are intended to improve water quality, fund the purchase of sensitive land, map and identify problem areas of local storm sewer systems, and pay for improvements like storage facilities to replace outdoor road salt piles. Other projects are aimed at revitalizing local waterfronts by planning for redevelopment or building shoreline protections. Half a dozen projects cover restoration of parks and landmarks including the Dix Hills home of jazz giants Alice and John Coltrane.

A job generator

The state economic development initiative, started in 2011 under then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo, pools much of the money, formerly doled out by state agencies. Since its inception, the initiative has steered $8 billion to more than 10,000 projects statewide.

Lawrence Levy, executive dean at the National Center for Suburban Studies at Hofstra University, said the initiative has primed "the job generating pump" on Long Island, distributing its windfalls evenly across the region. It's also created a model of cooperation for business, nonprofit and educational leaders on Long Island, said Levy, who worked for the regional development council in its first decade.

In Smithtown, town officials plan to put $1.5 million in state grants toward remaking Given Park, west of downtown. The park, which is near the town's iconic bull statue — near, too, the former site of a notorious strip club — will get an upgraded path to make it accessible to visitors with disabilities, along with plantings, drainage and rain gardens to keep road runoff from flowing down into the Nissequogue River. 

The work, most of which is expected to take place next summer and fall, is part of a yearslong effort by town officials that included a property swap with the county and acquisition of the Oasis Gentlemen’s Club. The former Oasis, once it has been gutted and renovated, will house a park welcome center.

"The vision is that this would be a gateway park to the Town of Smithtown," said Allyson Murray, the town’s principal planner, in an interview last week.

Land preservation

Suffolk County received $5 million, the single largest award on Long Island, to acquire wooded Riverhead land north of Middle Country Road and east of Fresh Pond Avenue, in Calverton. Preservation of the land, located in a Special Groundwater Protection Area, is intended to protect the underground aquifer that provides the county's drinking water, according to the grant documents. Conservation group Long Island Pine Barrens Society has identified the parcel as one whose protection would safeguard drinking water and enhance the nearby pine barrens ecosystem. 

A $2 million grant is aimed at making improvements at Violet Cove in Mastic Beach. In 2022 at that site, crews demolished the former home of the Violet Cove restaurant, which closed more than a decade ago and was damaged during Superstorm Sandy. The money will go toward "converting vacant land overlooking Moriches Bay into a recreational eco-destination," according to a press release this week from the New York Department of State, with expanded recreational amenities, nature-based techniques to mitigate flooding and information for visitors about the local ecosystem.

In a statement, Suffolk County Executive Edward P. Romaine called the grants "critically important to help Suffolk County preserve our quality of life, improve our infrastructure and preserve open space."

Maura Spery, former mayor of the disbanded Village of Mastic Beach, and president of the Mastic Beach Conservancy, a nonprofit that aims to conserve 6.5 miles of publicly accessible recreational waterfront in Mastic Beach and Shirley, said she envisioned a waterfront nature center where the restaurant stood. The grant, she said, would position the area "to be at the forefront of how we are dealing with climate change and sea-level rise."

Bayfront redevelopment plans

Long Beach officials told Newsday a $170,000 award would go toward planning for redevelopment of an industrial bayfront area that has held, over the years, toy and pharmaceutical factories, a gun range and a sewage treatment plant slated to be converted into a pump station. After that conversion, the city will send its wastewater to Bay Park Wastewater Plant for treatment.

That plan is part of a larger project estimated to eliminate 75 million gallons of treated effluent now discharged into the back bays. It will also reclaim about 4 acres of waterfront land. A bulkhead project nearby will reclaim a little more than 2 acres of land, according to Long Beach officials.

The task for Long Beach and residents now is to make the land "useful, attractive and practical for residents, as well as create some jobs and increase the tax base," said Patricia Bourne, the city's director of economic development.

City manager Daniel Creighton said future uses could include housing, a marina or public space.

"We're a barrier island, and we've really taken advantage of our oceanfront, but neglected our bayfront," Creighton told Newsday last week. "We really should be capitalizing on both."

Some smaller municipalities and nonprofits were also awarded grants.

In Westhampton Beach Village, bids are already out for a new bulkhead to replace one at the end of Point Road, facing Moriches Bay. The existing structure, last renovated in the 1980s, "is deteriorating to the point where we’re afraid a severe storm of some sort may compromise it, and we have two homes within 50 feet," Mayor Ralph Urban also told Newsday last week.

Because the whole neighborhood is low-lying, "all the other homes would be jeopardized as well," Urban said. Village officials hope to do the work this winter, he added.

In Dix Hills, Steve Fulgoni, president of the volunteer-run nonprofit organization devoted to restoring and exhibiting the Coltrane home, told Newsday on Monday that the $675,000 state grant is "incredibly significant."

The money will go toward installation of electrical and climate control systems as the organization prepares to open the house to the public in 2026, the centennial of John Coltrane’s birth.