Concerned Citizens of NY-03, a “good government” community group, ramped up pressure on local lawmakers last week, urging them to prevent Kings Point parkland alienation ahead of the state Assembly’s January session.
A bill that enables a piece of Kings Point Park to be repurposed passed in the state Senate and is expected to be reintroduced to the state Assembly when it reconvenes. The bill, if passed, would allow municipalities to alienate parkland in order to build a parking lot for a private community center.
Jody Kass Finkel, the leader of CC-03, sent open letters this past week to the Village of Great Neck Board of Trustees, state Assemblymember Daniel Norber, and the Great Neck Park District, asking them to take action to prevent the alienation.
“What’s happening here is that the community was being completely shut out,” Kass Finkel said.
In 2019, the Village of Great Neck approved the construction of a center for the United Mashadi Jewish Community of America, which borders Kings Point Park, a property owned by the Village of Kings Point and leased to the Great Neck Park District.
The Village of Great Neck approved variances for the UMJCA and approved a “parking waiver…conditioned on the completion and approval of the shuttle bus agreement by the Board of Trustees,” according to the Board of Trustees minutes on July 16, 2019.
The village allowed the UMJCA center to be built with fewer parking spaces than required if the center agreed to “provide shuttle service that will, in the determination of the Building Department, materially reduce the amount of vehicular traffic, pedestrian traffic, and any implications associated therewith which might otherwise result from the Proposed Action.”
In June 2025, the New York State Senate passed a bill brought by state Sen. Jack Martins, who represents Great Neck, to allow Kings Point, North Hempstead, and Nassau County to alienate the parkland in order to allow UMJCA to build a parking lot on the land.
Martin’s office stated that the issue was brought to their attention by Mayor Kourous Tourkan of the Village of Kings Point and the Great Neck Park District.
Efforts to reach Tourkan and the Great Neck Park District were unavailing.
The loss of 2.48 acres has been proposed to be compensated for with a swap of 13.48 acres of nearby parkland, which will be leased by the Village of Kings Point to the park district.
The village of Kings Point has since rescinded its petition to alienate the parkland in response to a lawsuit by the Pace Environmental Litigation Clinic on behalf of residents.
Kass Finkel, who has spent 40 years working in politics, wrote to Norber, asking him to withdraw the bill that would allow municipalities to alienate a part of Kings Point Park before the January session begins.
In a separate letter, Kass Finkel also suggested seven different ways that the Village of Great Neck could “mitigate the problem.”
Kass Finkel proposed that the board withhold or add conditions to UMJCA’s certificate of occupancy, issue a stop-work order on the building’s construction, or rescind the variances it had previously approved.
“It is unfair, unprofessional and a sign of ‘bad government’ to expect Park District residents to sacrifice a portion of Kings Point Park when the Village of Great Neck caused the parking problem and has the ability to remedy it,” Kass Finkel wrote to the board.
Kass Finkel also emphasized that she was primarily upset with what she saw as a lack of transparency. “I want to be clear that Concerned Citizens of NY-03 has never taken a position on the merits of the alienation of the parkland,” Kass Finkel said.
Village of Great Neck Mayor Pedram Bral called the suggested actions “premature,” and said, “I think there is a lot of misinformation out there that needs to be clarified.”
Regarding the shuttle bus agreement, Bral said, “The shuttle buses are part of what they applied, and I think the shuttle buses will be there.” Bral also said if the land swap was even beneficial to UMJCA.
Rebecca Rosenblatt Gilliar, a longtime resident of Great Neck, agreed with Kass Finkel that “the complacency of the Village of Great Neck allowed the Mashadi [center] to be single-minded but short-sighted,” as she wrote in a letter to the mayor of Kings Point, but she also suggested that a Solomonic compromise was needed.
Rosenblatt Gilliar expressed her concern over future traffic problems on Steamboat Road if the UMJCA center were to be built without an adequate parking lot, especially since the road leads to the United States Merchant Marine Academy.
“The loss of parkland is no easy matter,” Rosenblatt Gilliar wrote. “But for me, the well-being of our community and of our country comes first.”
Bral said he is planning to host a presentation by the Great Neck Park District on the proposed alienation, perhaps at the next board of trustees meeting for the Village of Great Neck on Jan. 6.
Bral invited all sides to come, saying, “I’m hoping I can get everybody in the same room and have a civilized conversation.”
