Kris
May 25th, 2004, 11:18 AM
May 23, 2004
IN THE REGION | LONG ISLAND
Refining the Plan for a Former Psychiatric Center
By CAROLE PAQUETTE
http://graphics7.nytimes.com/images/2004/05/23/realestate/lizo.184.1.jpg
Building 93, the main structure at the former Kings Park Psychiatric Center, is such a strong symbol of the site that the planned multiuse development there would have an apartment building of similar size and style.
KINGS PARK
AFTER a weeklong series of public meetings, a master plan for the 368-acre site of the former Kings Park Psychiatric Center has been created that envisions the development of only 92 acres of a possible 200.
The amount of land to be developed, significantly less than earlier proposals, was reduced in response to strong concerns expressed by residents over the possibility that a more sprawling development would result in a substantial loss of public land, cause traffic problems and diminish the community's small existing downtown.
At the final meeting on May 11, attended by more than 1,000 residents, Andrés Duany, a principal in the Miami-based planning firm of Duany Plater-Zyberk & Company, which was hired by the site's developers to create the master plan, characterized the revised 92-acre approach as "politic, and the only feasible one."
As revised, the multiuse project would consist of a variety of 2,053 residential units, retail and office buildings, parkland and many sidewalks, to encourage residents to travel on foot or on bicycles instead of in cars. Much of the remaining 276 acres would be left as woods or open for public use, including ball fields and other recreational areas.
Dense development at the property is needed to help to pay for the $40 million asbestos cleanup and demolition of more than 40 existing buildings at the 120-year-old hospital site, Mr. Duany said. The cleanup will also deal with the remainders of many buried buildings, which also had asbestos and lead, that were demolished years ago by being "tumbled into their basements and grassed over."
If the plan is ultimately approved by the town of Smithtown, the project is expected to take many years to complete at a cost of more than $1 billion, according to James Buslik, an owner of LAMB Acquisitions, a consortium of primarily local real estate investors, which won the right to buy the property for $7.5 million from the state in an auction last May. The purchase came with the condition that LAMB would pay the remediation costs.
Construction is to begin once the plan has been approved and the site has been entirely cleaned up. The owners hope to begin work on new buildings on the site in about five years and expect the whole project to take 10 to 20 years to build out. The owners said that they had no guarantee they would get grants toward the cleanup but that they were confident they could get financing.
The plan estimates that the development will ultimately add $12.5 million annually to the local tax base, with $9 million going directly to the school district. Estimates are that it would bring in 4,416 new residents and 381 students.
Among the residential units would be 84 "affordable" starter condominium apartments, averaging 700 square feet each and projected to sell for about $200,000, and 1,596 market-rate units averaging 1,200 square feet for "empty nesters" and people 55 and over. The apartments would be in 16 buildings, one a tower of 11 stories and the others two to five stories tall.
There would be a two-story 23,800-square-foot building holding small shops and four 72,000-square-foot office buildings.
The Kings Park Psychiatric Center officially closed in 1996 after the state began phasing out large psychiatric complexes. The property originally consisted of 562 acres; 158 have been dedicated to the Nissequogue River State Park and another 36 acres have been retained by the state, where some of the health facilities are still in use.
On the 368 acres that are being purchased, there are numerous brick buildings, with a total of 2.5 million square feet of space, including the main 11-story, 350,000-square-foot Building 93 that has served as a landmark for the site. It is possible that three buildings may be saved.
The Long Island principals of LAMB, whose initials form the acronym, are Charles Lefkowitz of Port Jefferson, Charles Alter of Lido Beach, Todd Mendik of Locust Valley and James Buslik of East Hills, who is also a principal in Adams & Company, a Manhattan real estate firm. Another partner is the Manhattan-based Durst Organization.
THE public planning forums, called a "charrette," were held on eight consecutive days from May 4 to May 11, and individual afternoon workshops featuring specific subjects like transportation and housing drew up to 200 residents.
The sessions were run by Duany Plater-Zyberk, which set up a studio at a former elementary school where the workshop meetings were held.
Throughout the week the planners, who Mr. Duany said "came in with an empty slate," brainstormed with residents as they continuously revised designs for project options based on the public input.
In the end residents' concerns helped to mold the final plan, reducing the development size and eliminating plans for a supermarket. Suggestions that have now been incorporated into the plan include public recreational areas, a public swimming pool and an amphitheater.
As a result of worries that the development would take business away from the hamlet's downtown, the proposed new retail and office area and the entrance to the development were shifted to a spot along Route 25A, near where it intersects with Kings Park's main street. In effect, that makes the stores at the project an extension of the existing downtown; if the businesses had been placed deeper inside the development, they might have been seen as an alternative to the downtown. Space has been set aside for 32 live-work units in addition to the shops.
In addressing concerns about retaining a sense of the history of the hospital, where many Kings Park residents once worked, the planners designed the 11-story apartment building with 264 units for those 55 and over. It would be similar in size and style to the widely recognized Building 93, which has been deemed structurally unsound and will most likely be demolished.
Although Mr. Duany said connector roads within the development would lead to other existing roads that would do a lot to bypass Route 25A, concern over the impact of traffic on the heavily traveled two-lane state road continues to worry Long Island's major planners like Lee Koppelman, the executive director of the Long Island Regional Planning Board since 1965, and a former Suffolk County planning director.
"My first concern is that access is limited," Dr. Koppelman said. "There is only one way into the site, which is off Route 25A, and any increase in traffic generated is uncomfortable for residents of the area."
Frank DeRubeis, the Smithtown planning commissioner, said he was also concerned about traffic and the "sheer size of the development." There are already 7,500 homes in Kings Park and the project would increase that total by 30 percent, he said. "In a small area, that is a substantial increase," he added. "The increased density would be the economic way to justify the remediation costs. It raises the question though, should the town through zoning bear the cost of remediation?"
The guiding principle of the Kings Park planners is "smart growth," a community-planning movement that seeks to design development in such a way that sprawl is minimized and open space is retained. The result is a multiuse village with residential, commercial and open spaces within walking distance.
An important element in achieving smart growth in Long Island is the use of a "charrette," a sort of brainstorming public forum that brings together many groups, including residents, politicians, merchants, environmentalists and developers, in a collaborative effort.
The Kings Park charrette was coordinated by the Northport-based Vision Long Island, a nonprofit regional proponent of smart growth. "This was the biggest charrette ever held on Long Island," said Eric Alexander, the director. "The owners are searching for a big idea; this builds a consensus from the community."
Previous Long Island charrettes had been held in commercial corridors in the communities of Mastic-Shirley, Middle Island-Coram, Yaphank and Huntington.
Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company
IN THE REGION | LONG ISLAND
Refining the Plan for a Former Psychiatric Center
By CAROLE PAQUETTE
http://graphics7.nytimes.com/images/2004/05/23/realestate/lizo.184.1.jpg
Building 93, the main structure at the former Kings Park Psychiatric Center, is such a strong symbol of the site that the planned multiuse development there would have an apartment building of similar size and style.
KINGS PARK
AFTER a weeklong series of public meetings, a master plan for the 368-acre site of the former Kings Park Psychiatric Center has been created that envisions the development of only 92 acres of a possible 200.
The amount of land to be developed, significantly less than earlier proposals, was reduced in response to strong concerns expressed by residents over the possibility that a more sprawling development would result in a substantial loss of public land, cause traffic problems and diminish the community's small existing downtown.
At the final meeting on May 11, attended by more than 1,000 residents, Andrés Duany, a principal in the Miami-based planning firm of Duany Plater-Zyberk & Company, which was hired by the site's developers to create the master plan, characterized the revised 92-acre approach as "politic, and the only feasible one."
As revised, the multiuse project would consist of a variety of 2,053 residential units, retail and office buildings, parkland and many sidewalks, to encourage residents to travel on foot or on bicycles instead of in cars. Much of the remaining 276 acres would be left as woods or open for public use, including ball fields and other recreational areas.
Dense development at the property is needed to help to pay for the $40 million asbestos cleanup and demolition of more than 40 existing buildings at the 120-year-old hospital site, Mr. Duany said. The cleanup will also deal with the remainders of many buried buildings, which also had asbestos and lead, that were demolished years ago by being "tumbled into their basements and grassed over."
If the plan is ultimately approved by the town of Smithtown, the project is expected to take many years to complete at a cost of more than $1 billion, according to James Buslik, an owner of LAMB Acquisitions, a consortium of primarily local real estate investors, which won the right to buy the property for $7.5 million from the state in an auction last May. The purchase came with the condition that LAMB would pay the remediation costs.
Construction is to begin once the plan has been approved and the site has been entirely cleaned up. The owners hope to begin work on new buildings on the site in about five years and expect the whole project to take 10 to 20 years to build out. The owners said that they had no guarantee they would get grants toward the cleanup but that they were confident they could get financing.
The plan estimates that the development will ultimately add $12.5 million annually to the local tax base, with $9 million going directly to the school district. Estimates are that it would bring in 4,416 new residents and 381 students.
Among the residential units would be 84 "affordable" starter condominium apartments, averaging 700 square feet each and projected to sell for about $200,000, and 1,596 market-rate units averaging 1,200 square feet for "empty nesters" and people 55 and over. The apartments would be in 16 buildings, one a tower of 11 stories and the others two to five stories tall.
There would be a two-story 23,800-square-foot building holding small shops and four 72,000-square-foot office buildings.
The Kings Park Psychiatric Center officially closed in 1996 after the state began phasing out large psychiatric complexes. The property originally consisted of 562 acres; 158 have been dedicated to the Nissequogue River State Park and another 36 acres have been retained by the state, where some of the health facilities are still in use.
On the 368 acres that are being purchased, there are numerous brick buildings, with a total of 2.5 million square feet of space, including the main 11-story, 350,000-square-foot Building 93 that has served as a landmark for the site. It is possible that three buildings may be saved.
The Long Island principals of LAMB, whose initials form the acronym, are Charles Lefkowitz of Port Jefferson, Charles Alter of Lido Beach, Todd Mendik of Locust Valley and James Buslik of East Hills, who is also a principal in Adams & Company, a Manhattan real estate firm. Another partner is the Manhattan-based Durst Organization.
THE public planning forums, called a "charrette," were held on eight consecutive days from May 4 to May 11, and individual afternoon workshops featuring specific subjects like transportation and housing drew up to 200 residents.
The sessions were run by Duany Plater-Zyberk, which set up a studio at a former elementary school where the workshop meetings were held.
Throughout the week the planners, who Mr. Duany said "came in with an empty slate," brainstormed with residents as they continuously revised designs for project options based on the public input.
In the end residents' concerns helped to mold the final plan, reducing the development size and eliminating plans for a supermarket. Suggestions that have now been incorporated into the plan include public recreational areas, a public swimming pool and an amphitheater.
As a result of worries that the development would take business away from the hamlet's downtown, the proposed new retail and office area and the entrance to the development were shifted to a spot along Route 25A, near where it intersects with Kings Park's main street. In effect, that makes the stores at the project an extension of the existing downtown; if the businesses had been placed deeper inside the development, they might have been seen as an alternative to the downtown. Space has been set aside for 32 live-work units in addition to the shops.
In addressing concerns about retaining a sense of the history of the hospital, where many Kings Park residents once worked, the planners designed the 11-story apartment building with 264 units for those 55 and over. It would be similar in size and style to the widely recognized Building 93, which has been deemed structurally unsound and will most likely be demolished.
Although Mr. Duany said connector roads within the development would lead to other existing roads that would do a lot to bypass Route 25A, concern over the impact of traffic on the heavily traveled two-lane state road continues to worry Long Island's major planners like Lee Koppelman, the executive director of the Long Island Regional Planning Board since 1965, and a former Suffolk County planning director.
"My first concern is that access is limited," Dr. Koppelman said. "There is only one way into the site, which is off Route 25A, and any increase in traffic generated is uncomfortable for residents of the area."
Frank DeRubeis, the Smithtown planning commissioner, said he was also concerned about traffic and the "sheer size of the development." There are already 7,500 homes in Kings Park and the project would increase that total by 30 percent, he said. "In a small area, that is a substantial increase," he added. "The increased density would be the economic way to justify the remediation costs. It raises the question though, should the town through zoning bear the cost of remediation?"
The guiding principle of the Kings Park planners is "smart growth," a community-planning movement that seeks to design development in such a way that sprawl is minimized and open space is retained. The result is a multiuse village with residential, commercial and open spaces within walking distance.
An important element in achieving smart growth in Long Island is the use of a "charrette," a sort of brainstorming public forum that brings together many groups, including residents, politicians, merchants, environmentalists and developers, in a collaborative effort.
The Kings Park charrette was coordinated by the Northport-based Vision Long Island, a nonprofit regional proponent of smart growth. "This was the biggest charrette ever held on Long Island," said Eric Alexander, the director. "The owners are searching for a big idea; this builds a consensus from the community."
Previous Long Island charrettes had been held in commercial corridors in the communities of Mastic-Shirley, Middle Island-Coram, Yaphank and Huntington.
Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company