The Longwood Alliance is a 501 C3 nonprofit tax exempt organization. The Alliance incorporated in 1996 and is the umbrella community organization in the Longwood area. The Longwood area is comprised of 53 square miles in central Brookhaven and includes the towns of Middle Island, Coram, Gordon Heights, Ridge, Lake Panamoka, Yaphank, East Yaphank, Shirley, and portions of Medford, and Shoreham. The community is ethnically diverse, with 68.75% White, 19% Black, 9% Hispanic, and 3.3% Asian and American Indian. Since its inception in 1989 the Alliance has endeavored to bring this diverse population together and to build a new ethic of community.
Brief Overview of the Longwood Alliance
As the umbrella community organization in the Longwood area, the Alliance has taken a strong leading role in land use planning issues. Through intensive meetings with diverse stake holders including planners, issue experts, elected officials, and civic leaders, the Alliance developed the Longwood Mini Master Plan which is now incorporated into Brookhaven’s Comprehensive Plan. Out of the Master Plan process developed a set of agreed upon community goals. Several key focus groups also developed out of Master Plan process including the Longwood Society for Historic Preservation, and the Longwood Alliance Middle Country Road Committee. The Middle Country Road committee, in turn, met for well over a year with educational, environmental, civic and business leaders and the DOT, developed and conducted a telephone preference survey of random businesses located along Rt. 25, and finally developed an alternative Middle Country Road Plan which sort to reduce congestion through the creation of pedestrian, bicycle friendly street scapes. The Middle Country Road Committee than developed its “Road Show” in which it shared its developed mission statement, problem statement, and list of identified solutions with all relevant stake holder groups, including elected officials, the Board of Education, all civic and business groups and the DOT.
The Longwood Alliance seeks to educate the public at large, and has developed and presented numerous educational seminars on sustainable development, and bicycle and pedestrian friendly streets. It has further hosted or co-hosted several forums including James Kunsler, and the National Aviation Transportation Center on Traditional Neighborhood Development. The Alliance took part in the LITP 2000 study, Connie Kepert, President of the Alliance, served on the Bicycle, Pedestrian and Special Needs Committee. Ms. Kepert also chaired Brookhaven Town’s Bicycle Advisory Committee and was instrumental in bringing over $750,000 into Brookhaven to construct bike lanes throughout the Town. The Longwood Alliance was also one of the seven groups credited with convincing Governor Pataki to dedicate $3 million dollars to create “Local Safe Streets, and Traffic Calming Demonstration Program on Long Island. In the area of environmental preservation the Alliance has fought for and won the preservation of important areas of open space. Ms. Kepert served as Brookhaven’s only civic representative on the Pine Barrens Advisory Committee.
The Alliance has initiated and implemented a whole host of community building programs including Longwood Day, a community fair attended by over 5000 people every year. The Alliance also publishes Longwood’s only community newspaper, the Longwood Lantern. The Longwood Alliance also runs the Longwood Youth Program in which young people from grades 6 to 12 participate in both recreational events, and community service projects.
Some of Our Accomplishments
The Middle Country road Renaissance Project is Phase Two of our efforts to redirect development patterns from traditional suburban sprawl to interactive community centers. Our original project was funded by LIUU in November of 2000. The primary goal of our grant was to: “engage in a comprehensive process to transform the ways our communities are developed.” Our aim was to develop “...a broad citizen outreach program which reached beyond traditional alliances to bring together environmentalists, economic development interests, civic representatives, at large citizens and key representatives from all levels of government.” We have made great strides in accomplishing our goals, bringing in national renowned planners such as Dan Burden, in May of 2001 and again in 2002 when we sponsored a 4 day community charrette. Although citizen outreach is a goal which is never completed we have accomplished much. We have conducted a comprehensive effort to reach out to all segments of the Coram and Middle Island communities. Our intensive reach out involved the development of a web site, (www.middlecountryrdproject.com) large scale mailings, (we printed, and distributed over 15.000 brochures). Our educational campaign included presentations to the following organizations.: WMI Elementary PTA, Coram PTA, Longwood PTA Council, Jr. Lions & FBLA, MIFD. the Longwood Rotary, the Longwood Library Board, Birchwood Homeowners Association, Key Club and Honor Society, NECCA , MICA and the Gordon Heights Revitalization Committee.
We have also importantly developed a diverse leadership group which represents all the key community organizations within the corridor. We have further developed a close working relationship with our Town Council representative, and have done follow up presentations to all State Assembly and Senatorial Representatives. We have additionally developed a working relationship with many landowners along the corridor conducted educational presentations, provided follow up materials for developers, and negotiated amendments in site plans which reflect the vision developed by the community. We have further met with the DOT on several occasions and they have agreed to develop an alternative 3 for Middle Country Road, in conjunction with our consultants.
