{"id":2516,"date":"2015-06-16T18:49:51","date_gmt":"2015-06-16T22:49:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.smithtowntodaynews.com\/?p=2516"},"modified":"2015-06-16T18:49:51","modified_gmt":"2015-06-16T22:49:51","slug":"the-new-smithtown-planning-director","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/smithtowntodaynews.com\/the-new-smithtown-planning-director\/","title":{"rendered":"The New Smithtown Planning Director"},"content":{"rendered":"<h4><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">New Planning Director Fast at Work - Sewers, Smart Growth and LWRP<\/span><\/h4>\n<p>By <a title=\"About Maureen Rossi\" href=\"https:\/\/smithtowntodaynews.com\/about-maureen-rossi\/\" target=\"_blank\">Maureen Rossi<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Without great formality, just a simply vote at a Town Board meeting, David Flynn was just appointed to head up the Planning Department.\u00a0 His official title:\u00a0 Director of Planning.\u00a0\u00a0 The seat was left vacant by Frank DeRubeis who retired earlier this year after decades serving the town in that role.<\/p>\n<p>However, Flynn is neither new to the town or to the department, he has served as Assistant Director since 1985 and is a lifelong resident of Kings Park.\u00a0 He first worked at the department as an intern for three summers while in college when he was trying to figure out what he should do with his young life.<\/p>\n<p>Flynn studied Environmental Studies after a short stink in Annapolis which turned out to be a terrible fit for the young Flynn.\u00a0 Flynn then attended State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry where he chose Planning as his major.\u00a0 He had the opportunity to extend his collegiate career with a fifth year in Landscape Architecture and receive a second degree and that\u2019s exactly what he did.\u00a0 He says he took a lot of Geography and Economic electives as well.<\/p>\n<p>He says he was a mere 29 when he took the role of Assistant Director of the department.\u00a0\u00a0 The fact that the job was in his home town was a huge impetus. \u201cI trained everyone who came here, Dave did the planning and I was his right arm\u201d, he added.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMy purpose as Director of the Planning Department is two-fold, to provide advice to three boards, the Town Board, The Planning board and the Board of Zoning Appeal,\u201d he explained.\u00a0 Then he added in addition they are basically the administrative arm of those boards as well.\u00a0 \u201cHopefully, we give good objective analysis for the betterment of the town,\u201d he continued.<\/p>\n<h5><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">MASTER PLAN<\/span><\/h5>\n<p>After a decade the Master Plan of the Town of Smithtown is finished alas.\u00a0 Some critics, particularly those well-versed in Smart Growth say it took too long and is a defunct document.\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cThe draft is done and it hasn\u2019t been adjusted, the next step is up to the Town Board,\u201d he said.\u00a0 The Planning Department presented the Master Plan to the Town Board in February and has not heard back on the behemoth document to date.\u00a0\u00a0 Flynn\u2019s only contention with the Master Plan is that there was no public involvement \u2013 he says it\u2019s imperative to get a public take on it.<\/p>\n<h5><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">SMART GROWTH<\/span><\/h5>\n<p>Flynn has attended Vision Long Island\u2019s events in the past. He admits that his department even received a Dumb Growth Award in the past by the organization.\u00a0\u00a0 Vision is the non-profit that is the mother ship for Smart Growth on Long Island.\u00a0 However, they were also recognized two years back when Lavena Sipes and Mark Mancini worked tirelessly to make changed in downtown Smithtown to make it more pedestrian friendly.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn the 80\u2019s we anticipated more mixed use allowing apartments over stores and we amended zoning to allow it but got very few takers,\u201d he shared.\u00a0 He says sewers are a big problem or lack of them.\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cLack of sewers puts us at a competitive disadvantage,\u201d he lamented.<\/p>\n<p>He talked about John Kennedy\u2019s push for sewers in residential areas for the residents who were experience ground water flood and septic problems and says that makes sense.\u00a0\u00a0 He spoke of the high density area of San Remo and how that area would be ideal for residential sewers.\u00a0 \u201cI have a lot of strong feelings about planning but it\u2019s not place to impose my philosophies but it\u2019s my job to do what the public wants,\u201d he stated.<\/p>\n<h5><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">ETHICS<\/span><\/h5>\n<p>Flynn says that when it comes to planning ethics plays a huge role, it was part of his training.\u00a0\u00a0 He spoke of Environmental Justice, a common phrase when studying the subject of Planning in any college.\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cPlanners believe in efficiency and reducing waste,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n<h5><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">GRANTS<\/span><\/h5>\n<p>Right now The Smithtown Planning Department as four grants before them that they are working on.\u00a0\u00a0 One is for an Organic Waste Processing Facility so the town can take care of their own waste.\u00a0\u00a0 Toby Carlsen has proposed such a plant in the Industrial area of Kings Park.\u00a0\u00a0 It\u2019s contentious as Carlson has been a violator of law over the years but he has also been the recipient of the town\u2019s waste.<\/p>\n<p>The Planning Department is also updated the LWRP \u2013 The Local Waterfront Revitalization Plan.\u00a0\u00a0 The original plan was laid out in 1989 and there is no legal requirement for the town to have one.\u00a0 However, if they don\u2019t produce their own they are to adopt the state\u2019s version.\u00a0\u00a0 Flynn said it made perfect sense for Smithtown to have its own, as it provides us more control over our waterways and the adjoining lands\/wetlands.\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cWe were the first town on Long Island to adopt our own LWRP,\u201d he said proudly.<\/p>\n<p>The other grants involve energy with a consortium of seven Long Island towns.\u00a0 Right now they are studying sites for electric vehicle charging stations close enough to the Long Island Expressway.<\/p>\n<p>The last grant is for alternative energy involving the NYSRDA.\u00a0 \u201cIt would be our job to spread the work about their programs.\u00a0\u00a0 Flynn says our area is not a candidate for wind turbines as we simply do not have enough wind here, he said that is more suited for the South Shore and barrier Islands.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI am very optimistic about the Department, we have a great team, over the years we\u2019ve had good people; there is a lot of work to be done and the team is hard at work every day making sure it gets done,\u201d said Flynn<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>New Planning Director Fast at Work &#8211; Sewers, Smart Growth and LWRP By Maureen Rossi Without great formality, just a simply vote at a Town Board meeting, David Flynn was just appointed to head up the Planning Department.\u00a0 His official title:\u00a0 Director of Planning.\u00a0\u00a0 The seat was left vacant by Frank DeRubeis who retired earlier this year after decades serving the town in that role. However, Flynn is neither new to the town or to the department, he has served as Assistant Director since 1985 and is a lifelong resident of Kings Park.\u00a0 He first worked at the department as [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2517,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[341,342],"tags":[736,346,347,734,735,982],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-2516","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-in-the-know","category-town-hall","tag-dave-flynn","tag-in-the-know-2","tag-maureen-rossi","tag-smithtown-officials","tag-smithtown-planning-director","tag-town-hall"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/smithtowntodaynews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/dave-flynn.jpg?fit=1024%2C785&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6dZB9-EA","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/smithtowntodaynews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2516","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/smithtowntodaynews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/smithtowntodaynews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smithtowntodaynews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smithtowntodaynews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2516"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/smithtowntodaynews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2516\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2518,"href":"https:\/\/smithtowntodaynews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2516\/revisions\/2518"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smithtowntodaynews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2517"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/smithtowntodaynews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2516"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smithtowntodaynews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2516"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smithtowntodaynews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2516"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smithtowntodaynews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=2516"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}