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July - Aug. 2004
<br />farmland preservation report
<br />Lee Koppelman
<br />was paid out over five years. Yet, the
<br />program from that time to the present has
<br />sort of limped along. It became clear by the
<br />end of the 80's that we had only saved 8,000
<br />acres by way of the county program and
<br />close to 2,000 acres by the towns that had
<br />similar programs... we had gone from 1972 to
<br />1992 and had only accomplished one -third of
<br />the goal.
<br />FPR: I understand there was a recent local
<br />zoning change that farmers agreed to
<br />because TDR was part of the deal. But
<br />without a receiving zone, did they know it
<br />would be a tough market?
<br />KOPPELMAN: Well, I'm not sure they're
<br />fully attuned to whether there will be a
<br />market, but at least they feel their rights are
<br />protected. What they don't understand is that
<br />by increasing the zoning requirements there is
<br />no loss in value. It's simple supply and
<br />demand. If you go from 1:1 to 1:2, they're
<br />not losing half their value– in most cases
<br />they're enhancing their value because you've
<br />diminished the development potential.
<br />Therefore, less supply, more value. In
<br />Southampton, which was the first town I
<br />worked closely with, the supervisor was
<br />convinced to zone a good deal of the land to
<br />five -acre zoning. When the land was zoned
<br />one -acre and then converted to five -acre,
<br />instead of there being a loss, in many
<br />instances the value increased well beyond the
<br />original. It became that exclusive. It's been
<br />runaway prices in Southhampton and East
<br />Hampton ever since then.
<br />FPR: Why haven't farmers realized that
<br />before now?
<br />KOPPELMAN: Many farmers, every year
<br />would have to borrow at the beginning of the
<br />planting season and their misunderstanding
<br />was that the amount of money they could get
<br />on loan from the banks was relative to how
<br />the banks would value the land. They had the
<br />notion, one that the farm bureau kept pushing
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<br />from the 1970s on, that if the land was one -acre, they knew what they were getting
<br />in terms of a loan. If we moved it to two -acre, the banks would cut their loan by 50
<br />percent. Nothing I would tell them could convince them to the contrary.
<br />FPR: Why couldn't the bankers tell them that?
<br />KOPPELMAN: Well, they could but they didn't. It was a symbiotic relationship,
<br />and the farms were not given advice by the banks, and in many cases the directors
<br />of the banks were farmers. Most of their customers were farmers.
<br />FPR: How could it be that farmers, who are businessmen, could literally be
<br />banking on assumptions?
<br />KOPPELMAN: That's a very good question. I tried to get the answer to that,
<br />myself. And I had discussions with a number of the farmers. I said, `just look at
<br />this table showing land values... did you ask the bank about...' and they would
<br />say `we don't have to ask the bank — we've been dealing with them for four
<br />generations'... they had an adamant attitude, they still do.
<br />FPR: Tell me what you recall about working with Robert Moses.
<br />KOPPELMAN: Moses lived in the Town of Babylon. He never drove a car, never
<br />carried a dollar in his pocket. But what an autocrat...he didn't tolerate anyone
<br />crossing him. He thought I crossed him once, he didn't speak to me for six months.
<br />FPR: And did you cross him?
<br />KOPPELMAN: Well, actually I did. I recommended a bridge to New England, and
<br />he thought bridges were his province. We finally resolved it a year later, when we
<br />got the regional board to agree to recommend two bridges, my bridge in the east end
<br />and his bridge in Nassau County. That's how we reached that compromise.
<br />FPR: Neither one of those bridges were built...
<br />KOPPELMAN: Neither one, and I'm glad...
<br />FPR: That would have brought a lot of people over from Connecticut ...
<br />KOPPELMAN: We've got moveable bridges- ferries - that's more than adequate.
<br />FPR: You worked closely with Moses on a huge parks plan...
<br />KOPPELMAN: He was an interesting guy, and boy, he could deliver! Eight
<br />months before the legislature even knew there was going to be a bond issue he
<br />already put one of his key people to work closely with me – all the paperwork,
<br />forms, applications, etcetera – I had written the first park plan for Suffolk County
<br />and the day after the bond election I was down at his headquarters with the whole
<br />set of applications, and we were off and running.
<br />But that started in a rocky way, too. Being a landscape architect, open space
<br />planning was the first element of the comprehensive plan I started on in 1960. We
<br />called it "People and Parks " – a 17,000 -acre, $25 million program. And Moses'
<br />approach – not that he was against planning, although he always railed against
<br />planners – was to propose one park objective at a time. He had no use for quote
<br />`professional' planners; although he himself was a brilliant park planner.
<br />My agency had a consultant at that time who said that as a courtesy I ought to
<br />send a copy of the plan to Robert Moses. I had been on the job just a couple
<br />months at the time, and I had met Moses, but I didn't want to be embarrassed.
<br />This was `the great Robert Moses,' you know, but I figured, OK .. so I wrote a
<br />nice letter, put a copy of the plan into an envelope and sent it to him. About five
<br />days later a letter comes in to the Long Island State Park Commission and sure
<br />enough it was from Robert Moses. It was not `Dear Lee' or `Dear Dr. Koppelman'
<br />... or anything like that, it started off `Dear Nimcompoop'..: (laughter)
<br />And it went on ... how could I `dare to jeopardize the work of truly
<br />accomplished park planners by recommending such an outlandish program'... I
<br />found out afterwards that his approach was to keep everything inside the vest. It's
<br />not that he didn't have a long -range plan... but that he wouldn't let anyone in on
<br />the long -range plan. He would sort of slip it in when the time was right one object
<br />at a time. He followed the dictum of getting the camel's nose in the tent – and once
<br />you got the nose in, then the rest of the body follows. But to outline and say
<br />`here's 17,000 acres all over the place' – he felt that would jeopardize the program,
<br />would scare the hell out of the politicians — they'd look at $25 million and say
<br />forget about it. To make a long story short, we not only got more than 17,000
<br />acres, but he himself gave me more than $25 million. He was quite a character.
<br />FPR: He believed in the element of surprise.
<br />KOPPELMAN: That's how he worked. Interesting man.
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