Kings Park

We are currently in the process of selling our first home (out in eastern Suffolk) and are looking to move west. One area we like is Kings Park. Is anyone familair with the area? If so what are your thoughts about it as far as investing in a home there/living there? All input is appreciated. Thanks.

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I grew up there and many people in my family still live there. It is a nice community with a good school district. Very north so it's a little bit of a pain to get to the LIE/Northern State. Train line is 1.5 hours to Penn. What else did you want to know?

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I have family that live there. I really like it!

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i live in fort salonga (little west of KP). my zip code is northport but i am town of smithtown and kings park SD. FM w/ any questions.

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Thanks for the reply. I was wondering how the schools are and if people who currently live there like it. Also I have to do more reasearch but I am wondering what will happen with developing the area that was once a psychiatric hospital.

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I grew up there and most of my family is still there. I wish we would have stayed there. At the time we bought it was too expensive for us. I think it is an ideal town. It has the main street and small town feel, but it is not far from the bigger shopping centers in Commack and Smithtown. The LIRR is there and it close to the parkways (Sunken Meadow Parkway - you can take it to northern state, LIE, Southern State...).
You also have beaches there. Sunken Meadow State Park, and then the town beaches - Callahans beach and there is the Bluff if you have a boat. There are nice hiking trails near the beaches and a new state park in part of the old psych center. there is also a pretty good bike/rollerblade trail going through the old psych center. The schools are good too. The highschool has block scheduling which I LOVED! It definitely helped prepare for college.
If you have any questions don't hesitiate to ask. The only bad thing I can think about the town is the unknown future with the psych center.. but that wouldn't stop me from buying there. If you want to know about certain areas in Kings Park I would be happy to help.

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kings park is such a great area - the schools are good - it is a small school dsitrict and the location nice bc you are close to some major roads, the sunken meadow and jericho turnpike

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there has been a great deal of discussion in re: to revitalizing the grounds of the psych center. last i heard was that the grounds were deemed environmentally unsound and could not be used for residential purposes.

Message edited 1/30/2007 9:18:16 PM.

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We bought in KP - on the west side, in the Charter Oaks development. LOVE the location - we're minutes away from the beach/park and the parkway. We have hiking/biking trails across the street. Its very convenient.

I have a bunch of friends that bought in KP (we grew up in Commack). I think KP offers a better value, and its up and coming. Schools are great.

I'm hoping main street starts offering up some nice restaurant diversity - we did get a Thai place recently...

I think they finally decided that most of the land of the psych center would become part of the Nissequogue State Park, but its still unknown what will happen to the rest.

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DH is from Kings Park. His parents are still there, as are some friends. It's a nice area.

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NY Times article on the psych center becoming mostly park land:

Psych Center

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I grew up in Smithtown and my sister lives in Kings Park. I think Kings Park is okay, but if I was to buy a house, I would look into Smithtown, St.James, Nesconset area.
Kings Park doesn't really have a town,mostly bars. Alot of strange looking people always walking around town. I guess it is just me! My sister is always trying to get me to buy in KP.

The school system is good though.

They made the psych center a park. I was walking around there last summer.

Message edited 1/31/2007 8:01:40 AM.

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Message edited 1/30/2009 10:54:07 PM.

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Kings Park is a great town and does have a main street area. Some concerns though:

-The psych center (its just a giant vacant piece of land doing nothing). The town of Smithtown is extremely slow so that land just sits with no plans. There was talk of putting in homes, another SUNY, etc but nothing yet. There is also talk of the land being unsafe and if they were to build they could not have houses with basements.
THEY DID NOT MAKE THE ENTIRE LAND A PARK, JUST TO CLARIFY. ONLY A SMALL LITTLE SECTION!

-the dump (there has been so much talk in the Smithtown News that there may be some leakage into the land)

-San Remo (not the most desirable area of KP). Its broken up by the Sunken Meadow and hard to get to

-Fairly incovient because its hard to get to by the major highways

Now the positives, good schools, nice neighborhoods, cheaper taxes & homes than Smithtown & Commack.

I'm born & raised in Smithtown so I've def. now A LOT about King Park

I would pick up a copy of the Smithtown News. They have a section for just Kings Park and they discuss more issues than the larger issues.

Message edited 1/31/2007 10:16:06 AM.

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Thanks for all your replies. One last question are the older neighborrhoods off of of Indian Head Road nice (streets such as streets like Ellen Place)? We saw several streets and homes around there that looked nice and were curious about the overall neighborhood.
Thanks again for all the information.

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have you looked in fort salonga or nothport? the taxes in northport are often lower than some other north shore towns.

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There are dumps by San Remo?

Also, read the NY Times article. It's NOT a small piece of the Psych Center land that has been desginated park - it's a huge piece, a large majority of it. You may be thinking of the current Nissequogue State Park - there's been a recent decision to ADD to that park land.

ETA:

IT was big news in the town of Smithtown in Suffolk County when, just before the New Year rolled in, 368 acres of land at a former state psychiatric institution in Kings Park were transformed into state parkland.

The property had been in dispute since the hospital closed in 1996, as a lawsuit sought to force the state to sell the land to a developer who planned to build as many as 1,800 homes there.

But the suit was dismissed in December by a New York State Supreme Court justice, and control of the land was transferred from the state Office of Mental Health to the Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation.

''If you look at the land, it doesn't make sense to build housing,'' said Linda Henninger, president of the Kings Park Neighbors' Association, a local civic group that has opposed a housing development.

She said that the development would have broken up expanses of parkland surrounding it and that new residents in such an oddly placed subdivision would have clogged the hamlet's narrow roads.

The property, which has views of Long Island Sound, will now become part of Nissequogue River State Park, a forested 153-acre parcel next door that was also once part of the hospital -- although 90 acres of it could still be developed with park-related infrastructure like a pool. The transfer is ''great for the North Shore, and it's a beautiful park,'' Ms. Henninger said

Message edited 1/31/2007 1:13:05 PM.

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I wouldn't consider KP's main street section a selling point - it could use some spucing up. Something I'm hoping we see soon...

Message edited 1/31/2007 1:41:02 PM.

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I love Kings Park! I think it's an adorable town with a lot of charm. We were looking to buy there, but couldn't find a house we loved, so we bought in Nesconest. There are a lot of great houses there though, with nice size pieces of land, for pretty good prices.
My parents are in Fort Salonga, right next to Kings Park and the Sunken Meadow is super-close. 25A can also be a good connector road if you time it right.

Good Luck!