Save Kings Point Park held a gathering of over 100 people at the Main Branch of the Great Neck Library on Wednesday, Jan. 7, to protest a bill reintroduced to the state assembly as it came back into session earlier that day.
The meeting is the latest in a pressure campaign on local lawmakers to prevent the alienation of 2.48 acres of Kings Point Park to facilitate a land swap with the United Mashadi Jewish Center of America.
“Kings Point Park is the only substantial remaining forest on the Great Neck peninsula,” Nancy Sherman said when she took the podium. “This land alienation of 2.48 acres is not the first and won’t be the last.”
Sherman is one of the leading activists for Save Kings Point Park, a community group that organizes on Facebook.
The village of Kings Point initially proposed the land swap to the Mashadi Jewish Center and brought the matter to the attention of state Sen. Jack Martins and state Assembly Member Daniel Norber, who represent Great Neck in the state Legislature.
Martins introduced the bill that passed in the state senate and is now in committee in the assembly.
Under the proposal, 2.48 acres of Kings Point Park would be swapped for 5.76 acres of property owned by UMJCA known as Wildwood.
Kings Point would then lease the Wildwood property and approximately 7.9 acres of adjoining land, which is owned by the village, to the Great Neck Park District for 40 years.
Doron Hakimian, president of the Mashadi Jewish Center’s central board, said that the swap was not UMJCA’s idea. “It’s something we were talked into.”
Hakimian said the Mashadi Jewish Center had planned to build a private campground on its Wildwood property before the village of Kings Point approached them with the land swap proposal.
“I want to make it abundantly clear, this is not about religion,” Sherman said Wednesday night. “We will not tolerate any racist, ethnic, religious, or antisemitic comments here tonight.”
Save Kings Point Park objected on the grounds that Wildwood was not quality land.
Sherman presented photographs of a trap by the Mosquito Surveillance Unit of the Nassau County Health Department as proof that the area is being monitored for West Nile Virus and Encephalitis.
Attempts to reach the Nassau County Health Department were unavailing, but Hakimian said the allegations of disease present at the Wildwood property were “fully false.”
Daniel Capruso also spoke at Wednesday’s meeting.
Capruso is suing the village of Kings Point, the park district, and the Mashadi Jewish Center over the issue and has taken litigation against actors who have tried to alienate areas of Kings Point Park in the past.
Capruso noted that the Wildwood property is in a high flood risk area.
Both Kings Point Park and the Wildwood property are tidal wetlands, but according to the National Hurricane Center, projections show that the Wildwood property would be more affected in the event of a hurricane.
“If there’s a severe hurricane,” Capruso said. “Anything that’s built there will be completely destroyed.”
“Wildwood was a sprawling pool and tennis club for many years,” Hakimian told Schneps Media LI. “There are high-value residential homes surrounding it. [They have] no solid evidence to back the claims that Wildwood is somehow unfit for use as a parkland.”
“There’s a lot of members within our community who think this isn’t even a good deal for us,” Hakimian said. “We can survive without it.”
If the land swap does not go through, Hakimian says the Mashadi Jewish Center will move forward with plans to build a private campground on the Wildwood property.
Stéphane Perreault, an ornithologist that has been a Great Neck resident for 20 years, and Heather Simon gave presentations that focused on the nature of Kings Point Park.
Perreault has been birding at the park over 356 times and has spoken about the 130 species of birds that use the park, as well as the park’s indigenous trees, some of which are over 200 years old.
When the meeting turned to public comments, residents focused on the next steps for Save Kings Point Park.
The bill regarding the alienation of the 2.48 acres has now been automatically reintroduced to the Local Governments committee.
Resident Martha Hirsch urged the crowd to take action, saying, “It is more important to call every member on that committee than calling Norber or Martins.”
