This school proposal may have to go back to the drawing board.
Bay Ridge Prep aims to build a new six-story campus on 89th Street between Fourth and Fifth avenues, but it needs the city’s approval, because the site is not zoned for such a building. Educators made their pitch to Community Board 10’s land use committee on Sept. 6 as part of a larger public review process, but the panel wants the school to re-work designs and come back with a shorter building.
“Two of the board’s concerns are the bulk and height of the proposal,” said committee chairwoman Ann Falutico.
Building plans include more than two dozen classrooms, a 200-seat theater, dedicated arts spaces, a gym, squash courts, and a swimming pool in the cellar. The lot is zoned C8-2 — a niche designation allowing very short buildings used as auto shops, city records show. Schools can typically only go up on land zoned for houses, according to information from the Department of City Planning.
Committee members asked Bay Ridge Prep to consider scaling back the top-floor theater or cellar pool to reduce the building’s size, but school officials pushed back, saying those amenities would serve the neighborhood at large.
“This building is an opportunity for the community,” said Bay Ridge Prep co-founder Dr. Charles Fasano. “Our focus is the students, but the theater and the pool can also be used to meet community needs.”
The performance space could be a home for a local music and theater groups, and the swimming pool could offset the area’s lack of publicly accessible pools.
Committee members were also concerned about increased traffic that the new school may generate.
The co-ed school currently uses seven buildings in Bay Ridge and is hoping to consolidate offices and its high school in the 89th Street building, Bay Ridge Prep officials said.
The board plans to vote on the proposal during its general meeting on Oct. 17, but its decision is purely advisory — the city’s Board of Standards and Appeals that ultimately decides if the school gets the zoning exception.
