Landmarks Board Holds Off Voting On Crown Heights 'Gem' Project

CROWN HEIGHTS, BROOKLYN — The city's Landmarks Preservation Commission held off on voting on a controversial development at the Hebron School this week after nearly 1,000 residents wrote in about the project.

The commission — whose approval is needed given the landmarked designation of the Sterling Place site — received 950 letters in opposition to the project even before a public hearing on Tuesday, where another three dozen residents spoke against the development.

Only one letter, a petition with 1,800 signatures and one person speaking Tuesday were in support of the proposal, which would fund $21.5 million in repairs to the church-owned Hebron Seventh Day Adventist School by building a residential development behind it.

A petition against the project was submitted with 6,800 signatures.

"Given the complexity of the proposal and the amount of testimony we have received, we will not take action today," LPC Chair Sarah Carroll said before the three-hour hearing. "We will take time to absorb and consider all of the material before us and return to a meeting in the near future."

The hearing was the first time the project faced the landmarks commission since it was first announced in 2018.

The project, led by developers Hope Street Capital, would demolish an addition to the school to make room for a seven-story apartment building planned for the open space in back of the building.

Church leaders say the project is necessary given that $21.5 million included in the agreement with the developers will fund restoration of the Hebron school, which has been vacant since it was deemed structurally unsound five years ago.

But residents contend the apartment building would be a "tragedy" for the surrounding low-level brownstones and the historic school, which they call the "Crown Jewel" of the Crown Heights North Historic District.

"Allowing this institution to be swallowed by development would be a tragedy of epic proportions," said Ingrid Saraguard, who was speaking for a coalition of neighbors on Park Place.

The school building, found at 914-920 Park Pl., was built in 1889 as the Brooklyn Methodist Episcopal Church Home for the Aged and Infirm and is on the state and national register for historic places.

Residents said the apartment building would not only block views of the "Crown Jewel" but eliminate its back lawn, which developers have called a "parking lot" in their plans.

"The campus was explicitly built to provide vulnerable populations with the immeasurable physical and mental health benefits of visible nature and open air," Sterling Place resident Judith Waletzky said. "Hope Street has woefully mischaracterized it as a parking lot in the spirit of treating any undeveloped land as a commodity."

Architects said Tuesday that they will use the historic school's architecture as inspiration for the new building.

The deal with the church also includes building a gymnasium, 25 underground parking spaces and a two-bedroom unit to be used by the congregation and the school. The restoration work will include a full roof replacement, a new storm drainage system, a chimney reconstruction and reconstructing the facade.

Those opposed to the project have argued that the church can find other funding options for restoration, but Dr. Daniel Honore, president of the Northeastern Conference of the Seventh-Day Adventists, shot down that idea Tuesday.

"We want to save our school, we want it to be available for generations to come," Honore said. "[Without Hope Street] the funds are just not there and certainly not $20 million."

In addition to residents, those speaking against the proposal Tuesday included the New York Landmarks Conservancy, Crown Heights North Association, Historic Districts Council, Victorian Society of America, Bergen Street Block Association and Council Member Robert Cornegy, who had previously been criticized for silence about the project.

The next Landmarks Preservation Commission meeting about the application will likely be held in a few weeks, Carroll said.

"We will come back for a public meeting for a continuation of today, which will be the discussion portion," Carroll said.

Watch the full hearing here: