Emily Heard, a MS Urban Planning candidate at Columbia University’s GSAPP, will perform her internship at the New York Metropolitan Transportation Council. Emily’s project will be the Long Island Community Planning Initiative for the East Side Access Project. Her work will include supporting the development of a Community Planning Initiative in anticipation of the significant impact that the MTA East Side Access project will likely have on specific Long Island communities in the interrelated areas of station access, parking and transit-oriented development. Emily will conduct one-on-one outreach to Long Island municipalities to develop these approaches and work directly with willing municipal officials; research the likely community impacts of the completion of the East Side Access project; and aid in the development of an organizational partnership for the initiative.