Fenimore St. Residents Say They'll Go To Court To Block Unwanted Development

LEFFERTS GARDENS, BROOKLYN — A group of Lefferts Gardens residents rallied Friday outside 176 Fenimore St., a property they fear has been sold to a developer who wants to turn it into a condo building.

Many of those gathered are members of the Fenimore Street Block Association, which is waging an ongoing campaign to downzone 19 homes on the street between Bedford Avenue and Rogers Avenue, plus two adjacent properties on Bedford, from an R6 to an R2 zone. That change would prevent large, multi-unit buildings from popping up on the historic, residential street.

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But the Block Association received a surprise recently when they learned that a demolition permit had been filed for 176 Fenimore, a single family home that housed a doctor's office until last year.

The business and house had been owned by Dr. Herold Simon, who has since moved his practice. Simon was the only resident on the block who didn't sign on to the downzoning plan, according to Block Association member Edna Moshette.

Edna Moshette

What's more, developer Cheskie Weisz, who is building a series of large properties around Brooklyn, was listed as a partner on the demolition forms. That convinced those on Fenimore that a six or seven-story residential building was being planned for the property — exactly what they want to avoid.

On Friday, a secretary at Simon's office relayed a message from the doctor: he no longer owns the property. Weisz has not returned multiple requests for comment.

But regardless of questions surrounding ownership and intentions, the Fenimore residents said Friday, as they had earlier in the week, that the property's 1908 deed prevents anything other than a single family home from going up there.

"We will be taking this to court, and we will make sure that only a single family home can be built here," said Paul Graziano, a consultant who is advising the Block Association.

Paul Graziano

"We're here for the protection of this community," Moshette said, adding that she's lived on Fenimore Street since 1973. "We want to save what is a very unique block."

Calvert Hadley said he's lived in the house next to the 176 Fenimore property nearly his entire life. It was Hadley who discovered the deed limiting development at that house, as well as similar deeds applying to all of the properties the Block Association wants to downzone.

"People don't realize what they have," Hadley said, referring to historical limitations placed on properties they want to preserve. "You're going to have developers coming in and hoping you don't know."

Fenimore Street, looking east from Bedford Avenue

"If we destroy this, we are losing everything," said Raul Rothblatt, a staffer with State Sen. Jesse Hamilton's office, adding that preserving history and culture requires preserving physical spaces. "We will work to support you as much as we can."

Queens State Sen. Tony Avella, who said he's running against Bill de Blasio in this year's Democratic primary, spoke out against "developers who are not interested in community," and who would replace neighborhoods with "buildings where people dont know each other, where there's no sense of community."

Avella also said the administration should be proactively preventing development that breaks apart neighborhoods, adding that "the city of New York should be enforcing deed restrictions."

And Councilman Mathieu Eugene, who represents Lefferts Gardens, was on hand as well.

"This is a trauma for people who have been living here," he said, referring to development "that destroys the fabric of the community."

"I'm with you," Eugene said.

176 Fenimore St.

Pictured at top: Calvert Hadley outside his Fenimore Street home. Photos by John V. Santore.