Designing Tomorrow's Communities

Modeled on the national Mayors’ Institute on City Design, the Long Island Mayors’ and Supervisors’ Institute on Community Design provides a multi-day retreat for six to eight mayors or supervisors and a resource team of design and planning professionals.

The elected officials present planning and design issues that each community is facing, and then participate in a wide ranging discussion. While addressing the specific concerns raised by the mayors, the resource team members also describe in broader terms how they have approached similar problems. Using examples from other communities, the mayors and resource team members learn from each other.

The Mayors’ and Supervisors’ Institute offers public officials the rare opportunity to discuss a planning issue facing their community with a group of peers and some of the most respected designers and planners in the country. The Institute is based on the success of the program throughout the tri-state area. RPA has conducted eight Mayors’ Institutes in the State of New Jersey with assistance from its state Office of Smart Growth and one in Connecticut with assistance from the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities.

The inaugural Long Island Institute focused particular attention on how better design can help implement smart growth techniques in both Nassau and Suffolk Counties. Each case-study community has a walkable downtown, often transit-accessible; and the Institute examined potential improvements to the public realm, opportunities for redevelopment, and an enhanced quality of life. The towns and villages participating in Long Island’s first Institute represent a broad range of community types from both counties.