Plans Dropped For Controversial Clinton Hill Charter School

CLINTON HILL, NY — Plans to build a 101-foot-tall charter school in Clinton Hill residents feared would ruin their view and cause traffic jams were dropped by officials last week.

Unity Preparatory Charter School officials pulled their application to rezone the 32 Lexington Ave. parking lot to build their seven-story building on because of problems with the opening date, the Brooklyn Paper reported.

"It’s timing concerns expressed by the school, the timing didn’t work with the anticipated opening," the school's lawyer, Ron Mandel, told the paper.

Mandel and Unity did not immediately respond to requests for comments for the story.

Unity first filed plans to build the new school at 32 Lexington Ave., between Grand and Classon avenues, in 2016 that would have five-floors of classrooms, a basketball court on the top floor and a parking area, New York YIMBY reported.

The building would rise 25-feet above regulation height for the neighborhood and the school needed a zoning variance from the city to move forward with the project.

Community Board 2's Land Use Committee unanimously approved the plans early last year, but the project was met with resistance by local residents. Tenants of 15 Quincy St., the affordable housing complex the would share a lot with the school, called on the city to reject the project arguing the building would ruin their views and cause traffic jams in the neighborhood.

After several public meetings on the project, the full Community Board 2 rejected it in May, DNAinfo reported. The plans were scheduled to go in front of the city's Board of Standards and Appeals for approval this week but Unity officials pulled the application.

Photo courtesy of Lupe Todd-Medina