New Urbanism Loses in Long Island

North Shore residents tell investors to take a hike.

1 minute read

June 22, 2004, 5:00 AM PDT

"To [residents], 'smart growth' is what developers say when they want to coat greedy projects with a glaze of pure intentions. These are the doubters who leapt to the barricades in Kings Park recently to fight back a proposal to build a New Urbanist settlement of townhouses, apartments, cottages, shops, offices and a college campus on the site of the Kings Park Psychiatric Center."

"The 370-acre site is a tarnished gem...Long Islanders are not used to hearing developers deplore the barren anonymity of their tract-house lives...How smart is a project, they asked, that brings more than 4,000 new residents to a quiet little corner of the North Shore? What about cars, noise and congestion? Won't it overwhelm the schools? No thanks, they said. That's why we're in Kings Park. Take your blueprints and go away...And on Monday, LAMB did."

Thanks to Adam Weiss

Read the full story: The Battle of Kings Park

Monday, June 21, 2004 in The New York Times

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