Lee Koppelman

Who is Lee Koppelman?

Lee E. Koppelman dominated planning on Long Island from the 1960s until his May 2006 resignation from the Long Island Regional Planning Board. At age 78, in 2006, he still served as director of State University of New York at Stony Brook's Center for Regional Policy Studies.

Dr, Koppelman is regarded as the father of sustainability on Long Island for he was the first of the power players to conceptualize the idea of preserving space in the interest of health and future generations. This was at a time when the main goal was to sell all of the remaining land and sustainability was not even a word.

Koppelman drew up influential Master Plans for Long Island in 1969-70. However, some of their most ambitious features remained "on the drawing board" - such as an "instant city" to be constructed in the general vicinity of the Long Island Expressway's Exit 68