Will Bill And Brad Attend Hannah Senesh's 'Brief' Meeting About Expansion Into Publicly Owned Courtyard?

It's Not A Parking Lot, It's A Publicly Owned Court Yard

Fliers were distributed along First Place by the Hannah Senesh Day School on Thursday, inviting residents to a 'brief' meeting to discuss the school's expansion plan into "the parking area"on the corner of First Place and Smith Street.

The "parking area" is actually city owned and protected by a 150-year-old law, which states that the unique wide gardens of the neighborhood's Place blocks can not be built on or used for parking.

That doesn't seem to be a problem if you have out-going Councilman De Blasio on your side.

Without first discussing it with the community, De Blasio will introducing a change in the Administrative Code at the City Council on December 9th. The change would amend the old law by excluding the corner of Smith Street and First Place.
Hannah Senesh will then negotiate with the city to buy the publicly owned land for a token sum ( $1 has been suggested) and build a two story extension.

That, dear Carroll Gardeners, would be a precedent that will have huge repercussions. Where there is one exemption to the law, there easily could be two, or three.

I certainly expect Bill de Blasio to attend the Monday meeting at Hannah Senesh. He owes this community a clear explanation for this blatant abuse of power.

And I hope that Councilman-elect Brad Landers can attend as well. According to
Tom Gray of De Blasio's office, Brad has been "in the loop" . After all, the land purchase from the city will happen during his term.

This backroom deal has understandably angered many in Carroll Gardens.
It remains to be seen if a 'brief' meeting will suffice.

For those who are interested, below is the text of the old Brooklyn law restricting the use of the Carroll Gardens courtyards from the blog Carroll Gardens Brooklyn History

The NYC Administrative Codes that protect the courtyards are:
Code §19-132 Restrictions on First Place, Second Place, Third Place and Fourth Place in the borough of Brooklyn. The buildings to be erected upon the lots fronting upon First place, Second place, Third place and Fourth place in the borough of Brooklyn, shall be built on a line thirty-three feet five inches and a quarter of an inch back from the sides or lines of such places as they are now established by the map of the city, and the intervening space of land shall be used for courtyards only.

Code§19-136(b) Obstructions: It shall be unlawful for any person, directly or indirectly, to use any portion of a sidewalk or courtyard, established by law, between the building line and the curb line for the parking, storage, display or sale of motor vehicles.

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