Quantcast

Montgomery, DeBlasio rep trash DOT over Schermerhorn block closure

Developer pushing to close Schermerhorn block: ‘You’ve probably never heard of it’
Community News Group / Ruth Brown

The city’s Department of Transportation rode roughshod over residents by hatching a plan with a luxury-housing developer to turn a Boerum Hill block into a pedestrian plaza, state Sen. Velmanette Montgomery (D–Boerum Hill) said in a lengthy tirade against the agency at a Community Board 2 meeting on Thursday, claiming the change will back up traffic through the neighborhood just so the builder can have a fancy front yard.

“Between the DOT and developer, they’d like to have the street closed so they’ll have an expanded plaza so they can have more flower pots or whatever,” Montgomery said. “Traffic flow will be terribly interrupted.”

Montgomery says she has already informed Dumbo builder Alloy Development that she opposes its plan to shut the block of Schermerhorn Street between Third Avenue and Flatbush Avenue to traffic and expand the plaza known as Temple Square, which is right where the developer intends to build a new tower.

Alloy reps appeared before the board last month to inform locals that the transportation department was allowing it to do a one-day test closure of the street, saying residents had probably never even heard of the stretch because “nobody uses it.”

Board members fired back that not only are they well aware of the thoroughfare, they depend on it to get to and from Fort Greene and Clinton Hill and vowed to attend the temporary closure to vent their frustration to the department, but the agency was nowhere to be found on the day.

An agency rep said at the time that it supported closing the street to make it safer for pedestrians, but Montgomery said locals could probably come up with a better fix if the agency would just include them in the discussion.

“I really have a huge problem with the way DOT operates,” she said. “I’m very unhappy with the fact that DOT plans to disrupt communities with traffic changes without working with the community and I think we could come up with much better solutions to some of the issues than they do.”

No one from the department was actually at Thursday’s meeting for Montgomery’s tongue-lashing, and a mayoral spokesman responded by throwing the city-run agency under the bus, claiming City Hall has told transportation officials they aren’t doing enough to keep Community Board 2 in the loop on street changes in the fast-growing district, which includes Dumbo, Downtown, and Fort Greene.

“I hear concerns about DOT and we stress to them the importance they do a better job engaging with CB2,” said Daniel Abramson, the Brooklyn borough director for Mayor DeBlasio’s Office of Community Outreach. “It’s really important with all of the development that’s coming to the area.”

At least one board member appreciated Montgomery’s broadside, agreeing that the closure will only really benefit the developer and disadvantage residents in the long run.

“I agree with the senator, I think it should be kept,” said Boerum Hill resident Bill Harris. “In the future years, it will probably receive much more use as Schermerhorn gets developed and we know it’s being developed like mad. All the closure does is enhance their values and their investments.”

But transportation honchos may be in the community board’s corner on one issue when it comes to the plaza — a rep from the agency told the board’s transportation committee last month that it has been butting heads with another developer over a Citi Bike rack on the sidewalk there. The developer wants it gone, but committee members said they want to keep it where it is, because they don’t want it taking up parking spaces.

Reach reporter Lauren Gill at lgill@cnglocal.com or by calling (718) 260–2511. Follow her on Twitter @laurenk_gill.