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Juror summary: a highly sensible proposition to relocate middle and high schools to more resource- and tax-efficient locations close to train stations, thus opening up large school campus sites for park space.
How Building Urban Relationships for People will “Build a Better Burb”
The “BIG IDEA”
Move Hickville Middle & High Schools into Downtown Center and establish “Schoolways” for pedestrian & student circulation/interaction through reinvestment in bike, ped & transit focused streetscapes. By transferring schools to the Downtown Core, the hamlet of Hickville will immediately begin building a new civic core. The traditional public “Spending” on education will become strategic public “Investment,” stimulating economic development and significantly increasing the potential tax base.
1. 3,300 students & faculty will now occupy the town Core instead of remote, decentralized, large footprint, standard suburban schools.
2. “Schoolways” will be established to promote walking to school, biking to school and adopting public transit as optimum ways to access the new schools, helping to reconsider the roll of the street in the suburb.
3. 33% of the 11,000 Hicksville families have schoolchildren.
4. 25% of households use the Hicksville LIRR transit station.
5. 82% of resident taxes go towards education.
6. 13% of the Hicksville School District budget is spent on grounds maintenance and student transportation.
7. By significantly increasing the daily density and number of users around the downtown core, previously underutilized land (the primary source for transit parking) will be redeveloped with a pedestrian-oriented focus.
8. Previous school grounds are transitioned into non-exclusive civic parks/agriculture areas and recreational spaces to be directly linked to M.S./H.S. curriculum and athletics while also providing amenity for the Hicksville community.
Key themes: transit-oriented development (TOD), walkability, new uses for schools, strengthening the public/civic realmCollaborators: Matt Tomasulo