A letter from the President

                                                                                                                                                                                                                 January 22, 2006

 Dear Neighbor,

 On January 14th, the State announced that the sale of the Kings Park Psychiatric Center property has been cancelled. This has been a long journey, but well worth it and the people of our community should be proud of their accomplishment.

We have remained steadfast in our belief that the sale should be stopped and the State must take responsibility for the clean up this land, which it polluted. The high cost of cleanup of this property has led each developer to propose high density development. The sale to the Arker Companies clearly would have had a negative impacted on the quality of life and economic well being of our community.

 Now that the sale has been stopped, we need to focus on the second important aspect of this process, reaching out to our State representatives to continue to work for our community and compel the State to pay for the cleanup of this beautiful property.

 At a recent KPNA meeting, we also discussed the rather important issue of tax revenue of this property. Of the 373 acres that was for sale, approximately 280 will not and can not be developed, by anyone. This is a result of a covenant that runs with the land.  Of great importance is the fact that the State of New York pays school taxes on all state owned property within Kings Park. For example, the State presently pays over 900,000 dollars for the KPPC property. In total, the State pays over 5 million dollars in taxes to the school district for all State owned property in Kings Park.

 It has been proposed by KPNA that the 280 acres that cannot be developed by anyone stay within the State's ownership and be joined with existing parkland. As such, the State will continue to pay 680,000 dollars in tax revenue to the school district. If any other entity takes control over the un-developable 280 acres, the taxes will plunge to approximately 54,000 dollars. This would be a great loss for the community. With the State retaining ownership of these 280 acres, our community would benefit in two ways, first by ensuring the property remains green and second, by ensuring our school district will continue to receive a substantial amount of tax revenue which would be lost if the property was transferred to any other entity.

 While the canceling of the sale of the hospital property has been a significant and important step, there is much more work to be done, from the funding of the clean up to the redevelopment of the property. We need to continue to ask our State representatives to work diligently on our behalf to secure the necessary funding to clean up this property and assistance in maintaining State control over those acres of the property that cannot be developed, thus protecting tax revenue to our school district. 

Kings Park Neighbors’ will continue to keep abreast of all developments of this important issue, including any lawsuit that might be by filed by the The Arker Companies.

We thank you for your membership this last year and hope you will choose to continue your support. KPNA is committed to our community and has enjoyed working with you in an effort to help our community remain a wonderful place to raise our children and hopefully, our grandchildren. We wish everyone a warm and safe winter. 

      Best Regards,

     Linda Henninger