Judge rules no public garage on parkland

The Village of Kings Point is barred from building a public works garage on a disputed piece of land that a state Supreme Court Justice has ruled is parkland.

Justice Thomas Feinman, sitting in Mineola, ruled earlier this month that the North Hempstead village could not use a 5.4-acre parcel of land within Kings Point Park, a large wooded area with trails, to build the 10,000 square foot building without approval from the state legislature.

Stephen Limmer, counsel to the village, said the ruling will be appealed. "We think the judge is in error," Limmer said. "We don't think it's parkland."

Limmer said the parcel has been used for decades for police training, salt storage and a rifle range and that the time period for objections has passed.

Mayor Michael Kalnick announced at a 2008 meeting plans to build a 28-foot-tall building large enough to hold 10 trucks.

Great Neck resident Daniel Capruso, one of several area residents who sued the village in 2009 to stop construction, said, "I'm just relieved that the courts are stopping them from destroying this parkland."

Capruso lives about 50 feet from the proposed construction site, the western portion of the park near the intersection of Kings Point and Steamboat roads. He said the area is an old-growth forest with trees more than 100 years old.

"If every community did that, we wouldn't have any parks left," said Capruso.

State law requires municipalities to get approval from the legislature to convert parkland. Feinstein's ruling bars the village from moving forward with the project, issuing permits for work, soliciting bids, doing site preparation or denying park access. It also orders the village to remove a salt shed on the property.

The ruling also awards attorney's fees to Capruso and two other plaintiffs. He declined to say how much has been spent fighting the village.

In the past, Kalnick said its title company insurance was covering the cost of litigation. But Fidelity National Title Insurance Co., based in Jacksonville, Fla., notified the village Wednesday it would no longer cover those costs, which includes the granting of attorney's fees, Limmer said. He expected the village to appeal Fidelity's decision. Fidelity could not immediately provide comment.