Controversial Charter School Might Be Coming To Clinton Hill

CLINTON HILL — A new charter high school might be built on a Lexington Avenue parking lot and its potential neighbors are outraged.

The inhabitants of 15 Quincy St. — an affordable-housing complex that sits on the lot in question — demanded the city reject plans to develop Unity Preparatory Charter School’s new seven-story building at 32 Lexington Ave. in a public hearing Tuesday night.

“It’s double dipping,” said 15 Quincy St. tenants association president David Moore. “It’s outrageously greedy.”

Classon Avenue Housing Funding Company, the property owner of both the parking lot and 15 Quincy St., first asked the city for permission to build beyond what local zoning laws will allow in February.

The seven-story high school building — which would include a parking area, five floors of classrooms, and a basketball court on the seventh floor — would rise 25 feet above regulation height and require an expansion to the maximum floor area permitted in the lot, city records show.

The zoning variance request was initially approved by Community Board 2’s Land Use Committee in February, but tenants petitioned and were granted a public hearing to argue against the new development, which they said was hidden from them.

“Things were kept from us deliberately,” said 15 Quincy St. resident Alvin Browne, 75. “We did not know anything except by chance.”

At the hearing on Tuesday night, 15 Quincy St. tenants argued a new school would exacerbate an already dangerous traffic problem, block the natural light source of half their building, and set a precedent for developers receiving special variances in the neighborhood.

The neighborhood has a grievance with developers and not with Unity Prep, said several of its inhabitants.

"Young people, this is not about you," said Clinton Hill resident Dennis Henson. "Mommy, daddy, this is not about you."

“I am resentful they would trot out black kids and black residents,” said Clinton Hill resident Nicole Thompson-Adams. “We want them to be educated, but not on this lot.”

“I want to rail against the false narrative,” said 15 Quincy St. resident Charles Brock, “that we’re anti-student.”

Brock is one of many building residents who lives in the rear of the building — he said his only natural light comes from windows the new school would block.

“Let us see the sky,” Brock pleaded.

Another building resident, Eileen Rivera, added, “Would you live in an apartment where you see a brick wall, only?”

Unfortunately, Unity Prep teachers, parents and students, are also in need of more sunlight, they said.

That’s because the charter school currently houses its high schoolers — most of whom hail from Clinton Hill and Bedford-Stuyvesant — in an old furniture warehouse in Brownsville that is ill-suited to fulfill their needs, said Unity Prep students and staff.

“I don’t think people realize how awful these classrooms are,” said teacher A. J. Hudson, who described windowless rooms with structural columns that make it difficult for him to see his students.

“If we have to get uncomfortable traveling everywhere to school,” added student Tashara Watt, “You can be uncomfortable building this building.”

Public Speaker Letitia James and City Councilwoman Laurie Cumbo both appeared at the hearing — James offered support for the debate and Cumbo more straight-forwardly gave her support to the Quincy Street residents.

“Our neighborhood, as you know, is under siege,” said Cumbo. “I believe there is an opportunity for a school to exist,” she added, “but not on a residential block.”

The decision of whether to permit the requested variances now rests with the Land Use Committee, who will offer a recommendation to the Community Board 2 in May, officials said.

The meeting was held at 1 Metrotech Center's National Grid Auditorium, ran from 6 p.m. to 8:30 p.m., and was open to the public.

Image via Google Maps/Nov. 2016