Great Neck resident Daniel Capruso said legislation proposed by two Long Island politicians to allow the Village of Kings Point to use a 1.1-acre parcel of land in Kings Point Park for Department of Public Works facilities is “an abuse of the parkland alienation process.”
State Sen. Jack Martins (R-Old Westbury) and Assemblywoman Michelle Schimel (D-Port Washington) introduced legislation Friday that would authorize the village to use the park for its DPW facilities on a smaller parcel of land than the 5.45 acres it had requested.
“VKP requested 5.4 acres of parkland alienation, and you are only giving them 1.1 acres,” Capruso said in an email to Martins and Schimel. “But since VKP’s actions in the parkland have always been illegal and destructive, I’m not sure why you think that their past illegal behavior entitles them to further abuse and destroy any part of the parkland.”
The legislation would allow the village to avoid the demolition of the public works facility as required under a 2014 state Court of Appeals ruling that found the village had violated state law in building it there in 1946.
The state Court of Appeals unanimously affirmed a state Supreme Court’s 2011 ruling that the Village of King Point’s plan to raze 5.45 acres of Kings Point Park for a department of public works building violated state law, and ordered the removal of a village salt shed on the property.
Village of Great Neck residents Capruso, Alan Berkower, Elizabeth Allen and Julian Kane, filed the lawsuit in 2009 to block Kings Point’s plan to construct a new public works building on the parkland.
The court said the salt shed is a “continuing wrong” and should be removed immediately.
The seven-judge panel said in its ruling that the western corner of the park was “parkland” and that any plan to use the parcel for “non-park” use had to be “authorized by the state Legislature.”
Last June, Schimel introduced a separate bill that would designate 1.56 acres of a 5.45-acre piece of land in Kings Point Park for public works facilities.
Both Martins and Schimel said the new bill for a 1.1-acre parcel would “balance” the needs of the community.
“This protects residents’ quality of life and reduces the amount of land currently used by the village in Kings Point Park while ensuring the village can continue providing important services to residents,” Martins said.
Schimel said the two legislators walked through Kings Point Park numerous times to better inform themselves when making a decision.
“We came up with what we think is somewhat of a solution,” she said. “I don’t know if everyone is going to be happy, but I know I’m satisfied.”
The village has been using about three acres of parkland for DPW facilities for the past 70 years.
“Along with my colleagues on the board of trustees, we are appreciative of the ongoing efforts of our state lawmakers regarding this matter,” Village of Kings Point Mayor Michael Kalnick said. “The 1.1 acres of land being set aside, which has been reduced dramatically from the area the village has been using for the past 70 years, will allow us to provide critical services to the residents of Kings Point.”
Martins and Schimel said their proposed legislation would eliminate the need for widespread tree razing.
Capruso said the legislation doesn’t “save forest,” but instead destroys .5 acres of it.
To use the area for non-park functions, the village must also designate another area of the village as parkland, the bill reads.
The bill calls for a 6.64-acre parcel of land on lower Manhasset Bay along East Shore Road to be the substitute parkland. Some 1.57 acres of this land is above mean high water.
Capruso criticized the proposed substituted parkland because the village does not own that property – it would have to purchase it – and because it already owns some additional land on Sunset Road, where the village currently has a DPW facility.
“Using eminent domain to seize privately owned land to swap for forested parkland, so that existing municipal land can be sold for private residential development is wrong,” Capruso said.
