Wednesday, February 16, 2011

A SCHOOL VERSUS AN APARTMENT BUILDING

UPDATE: E-mail can be sent to Mr. Holden at Rholden [at] nycsca.org.

The Brooklyn Paper reports on last week's public hearing on the elementary school/middle school (pre-K to 8th grade) proposed for 701 Caton Avenue.
City officials proposing to build a school on Caton Avenue near E. Seventh Street in Kensington were blindsided at a public hearing when the owner of half the site said that he wants to finish his own stalled residential project on the same land.

"This is the first we have been aware of it," Tami Rachelson of the School Construction Authority told Community Board 7.

No residents spoke in support of the 17-unit apartment building, and the board’s land-use committee voted unanimously to advise the city to reject the zoning variance.

No one at the hearing questioned the need for a new school, but some residents said that the 750-seat, kindergarten-through- eighth-grade school would need its own zoning change in order to be built.
Send your comments about the proposed school to the School Construction Authority by March 7th. Specify that you're writing about the school proposed for 701 Caton Avenue, Brooklyn. Write to

New York City School Construction Authority
30-30 Thomson Avenue
Long Island City, NY 11101

Attention: Ross J. Holden