June 9, 2005

Spring 2005 Training Workshop for Planning Officials

Mineola, New York -  The Nassau County Planning Federation presented it’s Spring 2005 training program for local planning professionals on May 19th, 2005 at the County Executive Building in Mineola.  The Planning Federation was created by County Executive Thomas R. Suozzi in early 2004 with May W. Newburger as its director.  The Planning Federation is made up of the three towns, two cities, 64 villages and the county.  It’s goals is to offer training, professional enhancement, information sharing and networking services to professionals and citizens serving on planning boards, zoning boards of appeals and other entities that decide land use, zoning and community character issues on boards for local governments.

“We are very pleased with the response to our first training program for 2005,” said Newburger, commenting on the turnout of nearly 75 people who came from across Long Island.   “I attribute this strong response to the great need among local municipalities to bring helpful knowledge to their zoning and planning board members,” she added.  The training topics were Site Plan Review and How to Use the SEQRA Process.

The presenters for the Spring 2005 Training Workshop were two specialists from Nassau County;  Michael A. Levine, AICP, and Jane Houdek, Esq.  Mr. Levine is the Deputy Director of the Nassau County Planning Commission.  He is a professional planner with considerable experience in landuse and site plan review, development subdivisions, code revisions and zoning.
Jane Houdek is a Senior Counsel in the Nassau County Attorney’s Office.  She has extensive experience working with the State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQRA) process.  She is a former municipal attorney with New York City.

Due to the very positive response to the Spring program, the Planning Federation is planning a new training program for the Fall.  Also, the Annual Fall meeting of the Federation has scheduled for Thursday, October 27, 2005.