They want a stay of execution.
Sunset Parkers want the city to arrest its plan to level the landmarked former 68th Precinct station house on Fourth avenue and build a school there — instead suggesting it erect classrooms on a parking lot for sale around the corner.
Preservation group Sunset Park Restoration penned a letter to the School Construction Authority on Aug. 25 proposing it use the carpark on the corner of 44th Street and Third Avenue as an alternative, because knocking over the castle-like landmark would be a great loss for the community, according to the group’s leader.
“There are alternatives that don’t involve loosing our crown jewel. That’s what’s so staggering to me,” said Tony Giordano, the executive director of the Sunset Park Restoration.
The landmark’s owner paid $6 million for the property last year, and Giordano assumes the city would pay as much — plus demolition costs — so it should instead save the dough and buy the empty lot, which is listed on commercial real estate website LoopN
The city announced in June it was considering turning the long-disused station house into a 300-seat primary school. Some questioned whether the parcel — whose sides are roughly the length of two subway cars — could even fit a school, but the lot Sunset Park Restoration is proposing is half the size, city records show.
The area’s School District 15 is overcrowded, but some wonder whether dealing with a landmark is the easiest way to remedy the lack of seats, another local said.
“Why go through the hassle of dealing with a landmark when you can build it exactly how you want on a different piece of land,” said Lidia Ramirez, who lives and works in Sunset Park. “I’d probably be faster that way, but who knows with the city.”
A Department of Education spokeswoman would not say if the city plans to considered the vacant lot as an alternative, and said that the project is only in preliminary planning stages.
