Albany will approve a $100 million spending limit across ten municipalities throughout the state, matching every dollar they spend to revitalize their downtown area.
David Sabatino, a member of the village’s economic and development committee, says the Village of Valley Stream isn’t letting the opportunity to compete for the cash slip past. Last Wednesday, Sabatino publicly unveiled a detailed draft of how the village would — if given the green light — spend the coveted $10 million investment.
“Our application has been built from input from people who have emailed us, from folks at the Downtown Revitalization Initiative committee, and community feedback taken by our partners at Vision Long Island,” said Sabatino.
Though the meeting was sparsely attended, Sabatino was able to field some residents’ questions and get initial takes on the projects included in the bid. His presentation at Village Hall was as much a vision for the future as it was a tale of a downtown area full of unrealized potential.
“There is a perception problem in Valley Stream,” said Sabatino. “There is a negativity towards opening a business in Valley Stream or making an investment, and a lot of it comes from what people hear or what they think they see.”
To improve the optics of the downtown, the application calls for $500,000 to do for Valley Stream’s Rockaway Avenue what other towns and villages have done to polish the appeal and heighten the allure of its main street — create a distinct brand identity around it.
The promotional theme pitched for Rockaway Avenue’s business district is “The International Downtown.”
“We’re probably one of the most diverse communities, certainly in Nassau County, probably of all Long Island, and we’re proud of that,” said Sabatino. “We’re going to invest in that. We’re going to double down on the different restaurants and different stores and services that you can get in Valley Stream.”
It’s no surprise that the downtown area has struggled to bring in foot traffic, a widely used proxy for the financial vitality of a commercial area. On any given day, the village’s half-mile commercial strip is crowded more with moving cars than with customers strolling through the street.
Sabatino chalks up this phenomenon to the fact that “people don’t feel comfortable walking up and down the street because there’s nowhere to sit or stop, or there’s no reason to sit or stop. There’s nothing to see. There’s nothing to do.”
To remedy that dilemma, the village has proposed to set aside $300,000 for “placemaking” renovations to turn underused spaces into attractive community-focused areas.
In that same vein, the village hopes to revitalize the fire-damaged remains of a corner lot at Rockaway and West Lincoln Avenue. The “catalyst” project, one of two proposed in the application, would convert a part of the building into a multipurpose community space that would host a rotating schedule of events. Imagine a neighborhood art gallery for one week, for instance, and a pop-up retail space for entrepreneurs in the next.
To purge greenhouse gas emissions, the state will require new buildings to be equipped with all-electric appliances and heating systems as early as next year. Cathryn Natoli, who co-chairs the village’s beautification committee, wondered if more money could be used “to address the decarbonization of older buildings on Rockaway” to reduce the overhead cost for new tenants.
Sabatino stated that the proposed “catalyst” projects will direct funding for equipping renovated community spaces on Rockaway with energy-efficient infrastructure but does not believe the funding “can go much further” than that.
Resident Jessica Bautista inquired about how the new project constructions will impact public school districts already tight on building space. Sabatino argued that school buildings don’t face a capacity problem, citing a drop in student enrollment in Valley Stream public schools, particularly in Districts 13 and 30. Rather, the expansion of resources, such as Individualized Education Plans (IEPs), may be occupying more building space—though this claim remains unverified.
“It’s not an overflow of students overgoing the capacity of our classrooms,” he said. “It’s more of, how are we using the space? How do we have to structure the space? And do we need to purchase more property for more space?”
The state department alongside the Long Island Regional Economic Development Council, the state’s economic advisory board for the region, will hand down its decision. The deadline for the application submission is October 18.
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