Projects selected for South V.S.

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The South Valley Stream Community Reconstruction Program planning committee, in discussions with state consultants and members of the public, has identified three projects for the area to improve its infrastructure.

The projects — repairing the bulkheads and restoring the shoreline at Brook Road Park, restoring the natural shoreline along “the Path” on Cloverfield Road, and developing community information regarding green infrastructure — have been under discussion since October.

The committee selected them after the community was awarded $3 million in New York Rising funding last year. At committee and public meetings held in recent months, residents offered their opinions on potential projects. The Community Reconstruction Program area includes Mill Brook, the neighborhood around South High School, and the area of North Woodmere around Ogden Elementary School.

Niek Veraart, director of environmental planning for the Louis Berger Group, said that South Valley Stream’s committee and residents have a clear focus on what they would like to see done. “To us, it’s been very clear that the community is not afraid of the water,” Veraart said. “It sees the water as an asset. That’s why a lot of people move here, or live here, or stay here. It’s just that they want to make the water enjoyable again, and not … a threat.”

In order to make the streams less of a threat in some parts of the community, the committee identified Brook Road Park as a key area to upgrade. Veraart said that a berm would be added to elevate the bulkhead to seven feet, and a mound of rocks would be built just above the low-tide line. According to Veraart, improvements such as this would reduce flooding in the area during most storms, though for a Hurricane Sandy-like event, there’s little that can be done.

Ali Arje, who lives on Cloverfield Road, said that a large number of trees that once stood on the walking path behind homes were uprooted during Sandy and fell in her backyard. “We couldn’t see out of any of our windows,” she recalled.

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