Eminent domain cloud darkens Bay Ridge neighborhood
By Jotham Sederstrom
| DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER |
Nov 27, 2008 | 10:54 PM
A school may get built on the corner of 4th Ave. in Bay Ridge. (Egan-Chin/News)
A plan to build a public school in Bay Ridge has drawn the ire of several Fourth Ave. property owners whose land could be seized under eminent domain, officials said.
The move to clear land for the 480-seat school would mark the first time the School Construction Authority has had to resort to the controversial move of seizing private land for a government project.
"We're still in negotiations, but we also are prepared to initiate eminent domain proceedings so we don't lose time," said spokeswoman Margie Feinberg, who could not recall another instance of land seizure being used for a school project.
The possibility of eminent domain - which is typically used for projects that would benefit the public - has put plans for a grocery store and medical center on hold for the swath of Fourth Ave. between 88th and 89th Sts.
Jimmy Anagnostakos, who is part-owner of a shuttered car wash, said he has been in talks with Key Food about building a supermarket on the block. He said a food market was badly needed in the neighborhood.
Peter Pantelidis, who owns a parking lot on Fourth Ave., says he already sank $50,000 into architectural designs in a bid to build a medical center on the block.
"My property is not for sale. I will do whatever I can do, within the law, to make it difficult for them to take it away," said Pantelidis, a Bay Ridge resident who said he was a child in the neighborhood when hundreds of homes were seized to make way for the Verrazano Bridge.
Plans for the supermarket and medical center complicate the argument that a school is the best or only use that would benefit the public, an eminent domain expert said.
"There's no question that a school is a quintessential public use," said attorney Matthew Brinckerhoff, who has represented residents threatened by the use of eminent domain for the Atlantic Yards project in Prospect Heights.
"Having said that, as a matter of good policy, [the School Construction Authority] should target a spot that doesn't already have another public purpose in mind."
Public school advocates, however, cheered the proposed new school, which would serve kindergarden through fifth grade and alleviate crowding at nearby Public Schools 104 and 185.
"The area is extremely crowded, and this site would relieve a lot of that overcrowding," said Laurie Windsor, president of Community Education Council 20. who lauded the plans, but said she sympathizes with property owners.
"There's just no other space in the neighborhood."
jsederstrom@nydailynews.com
Latest Brooklyn
Man dead, teen injured in NYC motorcycle crash