It's considered one of the borough's fastest growing neighborhoods, and more than a hundred local business and political leaders attended a summit to discuss how to keep Long Island City's growth sustainable and affordable.

From Socrates Sculpture Park to new residential buildings and restaurants- many cite Long Island City as the place to be.

"The key to Long Island City's success is the tremendous mix of uses that are here and how they all synergistically work together to form a city within a city," said Elizabeth Lusskin, President of the Long Island City Partnership.

More than a hundred local leaders and business owners gathered at the annual LIC Summit - titled "Priorities and Plans" at the Museum of the Moving Image on Tuesday. The event was co-sponsored by the LIC Partnership - a local development corporation.

Panelists discussed the neighborhood's successes and challenges brought on by its exponential residential growth.

Speaker Kathryn Wylde says finding balance is key.

"The issues of how they will both balance the retaining jobs, commercial, historic manufacturing activity against the development pressures particularly residential," Wylde adds.

Entrepreneurs like Joshua Schneps says the residential growth has been good for business but feels tourism could grow it even more.

"I think that that is really the next evolution for a lot of the businesses... is the tourists staying in Long Island City," said Schneps

Local leaders say one of the biggest challenges caused by the rapid growth in Long Island City is affordability.

City Councilman Jimmy Van Bramer agrees.

"The administration has put forward a goal of 200-thousand affordable units being built or retained over the next several years much of that is going to happen in Long Island City," Van Bramer said.

Leaders also called on the MTA needs to improve transportation in the neighborhood, especially on the 7 line.

"They're making some signal and track changes which will marginally improve the efficiency of the line but we really have to focus aggressively on the long term prospects because there's no way we can handle tens of thousands of more people," said State Senator Michael Gianaris.

Even with the challenges most agree the future for LIC remains bright for years to come.