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The city hasn’t yet demapped the northern-most block of Fifth Avenue to make room for Bruce Ratner’s basketball arena, but the Department of Transportation is already acting as if the street no longer exists, announcing on Wednesday that it will reroute a Park Slope bus line next month.

“The developer has received permission from the Department of Transportation [to demap a block of Fifth Avenue] by June 1, so we have to make the detour of the B63 bus before then,” said Deirdre Parker, a spokeswoman for New York City Transit.

The detour of the line, which runs from the foot of Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn Heights along Fifth Avenue to Bay Ridge, will go into effect on May 27.

The bus will travel “to Atlantic Avenue and Flatbush Avenue via Flatbush Avenue, rather than Fifth Avenue,” according NYC Transit.

The bus’s rerouting was mentioned in the Atlantic Yards Draft Environmental Impact Statement, but Community Board 6 District Manager Craig Hammerman said it was never discussed with the community.

“We’re disappointed there had clearly been discussions between NYC Transit and the city about how to plan for this project that did not involve the community,” he said. “This is exactly why so many aspects of the [Atlantic Yards] project were as controversial as they were.”

©2007 Community Newspaper Group