Will Heartland Town Square Remain a Dream?

Thousands of apartments, millions of square feet of office space, and everything you need will be within distance of the Heartland Town Square.

By James R. Lindamood

Three million square feet of office space and over 9,000 apartment units is only one part of the large “walkable community” being considered in Long Island. The Heartland Town Square project is a project developer Jerry Wolkoff has been trying to get approved for the last 7 years. Set to occupy the space by a former psychiatric hospital, the development is designed to get more residents out and about.

The self sustaining community would provide everything needed within walking distance. Project plans include restaurants, entertainment, housing, and offices. Residents would not need to have to go far from home to do their shopping or get dinner. Of course this is part of the problem with getting approval for the development.

The Long Island Regional Planning board has some reservations about the proposed development. Due to commutes to the city for work and play it doesn’t seem feasible to the committee that residents of this development would be apt to take mass transit everywhere. According to the committee Long Island residents are far too dependent on their vehicles to live in a community where personal vehicles are a thing of the past.

For the time being the planning commission has allowed Wolkoff to gradually develop the land as a trial project. His hope is that once they see the first few stages of development and the buzz surrounding it that the commission will green-light the whole project. Only time will tell how successful the development will be.