Brooklyn Friends Headmaster
Speaks in Boerum Hill
By Mary Frost
and Jesse Santana
Brooklyn Daily Eagle
BOERUM HILL — Dozens of concerned residents of State Street in Boerum Hill turned out Monday evening at the Belarusian Church to hear Brooklyn Friends School headmaster Dr. Michael Nill, architect Paul Segal and traffic-consultant Phil Habib answer questions and present plans for a new lower school at the corner of Hoyt and State streets.
The meeting was sponsored by the Boerum Hill Association.
Brooklyn Friends is a private pre-K-12 school guided by the Quaker principles of “truth, simplicity and peaceful resolution of conflict.” But the peaceful resolution of conflict may be a challenge as the school and a group called “Keep State Street Residential” try to work out their differences.
Resident Chris Aston, who has lived on State Street for 10 years, told the gathered crowd that State Street is just too narrow to accommodate the traffic a new lower school would bring.
Consultant Habib said that only a small number of vehicles – 32 on the morning studied — dropped off kids at the present Brooklyn Friends location, on Pearl Street in Downtown Brooklyn. But his firm had not examined the traffic patterns on the proposed State Street block.
Another resident asked about the HVAC plan for the school and the potential noise it would produce. Still other residents worried that if they let developer IBEC build the school on State, this could set a precedent that might affect other empty lots.
Headmaster Michael Nill said that the school had an opportunity to move into a new building in Brooklyn Heights a few years ago and declined it because they preferred to stay in Downtown Brooklyn, and in a residential area.
“It’s a very sensitive, delicate and unhappy issue,” State Street resident Ann Armbruster told the Brooklyn Eagle Tuesday. “It’s roiled the block.”
Armbruster and other Keep State Street Residential (KSSR) members have protested the building of any school, not just Brooklyn Friends, on the empty lot owned by IBEC. The group says that the local community worked for years to fill the gaps in State Street with low-rise residential housing, and fears a school would bring additional traffic, noise, garbage and lower property values.
On its web site (keepstatestreetresidential.wordpress.com) KSSR provides a copy of the contract signed by IBEC in 2004 agreeing to build residences on the vacant site. But Samy Brahimy, partner at IBEC Corporation, told the Eagle via e-mail that the firm’s original plans fell apart in the real estate collapse, and that the school would be the same size as the proposed townhouses.
“Brooklyn Friends School would be an asset to the neighborhood,” Armbruster said. “Everybody has positive feelings about Brooklyn Friends, but a negative feeling about this location being used. Is this an appropriate location for 400 students, 80 staff, up to 60 cars and 400 caregivers?”
KSSR is urging Brooklyn Friends to consider a site one block away at Hoyt and Schermerhorn streets. “It’s a very good site on a two-way street that’s unusually underutilized,” Armbruster said. “There’s plenty of room for cars.”
“It was a respectful meeting,” Headmaster Nill told the Brooklyn Eagle. “It was not a general meeting, it was more to raise concerns. And people did.”
“Everybody was positive about the school but there were three areas of concern: garbage, noise and traffic/parking. Traffic and parking was a huge thing. We had hired a consultant to study traffic patterns on Pearl Street. What we didn’t know is that State Street residents strongly feel that the traffic situation is already horrible.”
While the State Street site remains the school’s number one choice, “We’re stepping back,” Dr. Nill told the Eagle. “We feel that unless we address the current traffic situation on that street, we’ll won’t move beyond this for now.” Brooklyn Friends hopes to meet with the Downtown Brooklyn Partnership, DOT and the Mayor’s Office to “take a look at traffic patterns in the area, then see what the school can add or subtract from it.
“We continue to look at a variety of sites for the school,” Dr. Nill said. “As we emphasized at the meeting, this one is very attractive for us in terms of location. To have the environs of a residential area is a good thing for an elementary school. It also meets out timetable better; and it’s a standalone building.”
The Hoyt and Schermerhorn site preferred by KSSR is not ideal, he told the Eagle. “It’s not clear the site can meet our timeline. It’s built over a subway, and the MTA does not move quickly. Further, even if the MTA approves, it may set requirements for building a foundation that could be very expensive.”
Dr. Nill added that there were many area residents in favor of the State Street site, though they did not speak out at Monday’s meeting.
Hundreds of Boerum Hill residents and business owners have signed a petition supporting the proposed relocation the lower school. Circulated by businessman Nat Hendricks, it states: “The new facility will provide sorely needed educational resources to young children of Boerum Hill, Downtown Brooklyn and ALL Brooklyn communities.”
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