CROWN HEIGHTS — A four-story residential and commercial building may replace an embattled local community garden, according to plans filed this week on the Crown Heights property.
The construction permit application calls for a 5,100-square-foot, mixed-use building at 115 Rogers Ave. at Park Place, the site of the Roger That Garden, a green space maintained by volunteers on the vacant lot since 2011.
The permit was filed by a Brooklyn Heights attorney representing owners TYC Realty, which bought the property for zero dollars in 2013, property records show. Neither the company or its lawyer immediately returned inquiries on Friday.
News of the plans was first reported by New York YIMBY. The plans have yet to be approved by the city.
Advocates for the garden hopes the city steps in to preserve the space permanently through the use of eminent domain. But in the interim, they hope unpaid taxes on the property will muck up the owners' plans. Tax liens totaling more than $214,000, including more than $9,200 filed after TYC took ownership, have been filed on the property since 2000, city records show.
“Roger That Garden Project fully believes that a community green space is a key resource to local residents and far more valuable than six (most likely unaffordable) apartments,” Emily-Bell Dinan, one of the plot's gardeners, said in an email.
“The city just really needs to act,” said Paula Segal of 596 Acres, an advocacy group working with Roger That. “In the meantime, we’re going to focus on making sure that the garden remains and remains vibrant.”
The city has not announced any plans to seize the property.
The gardeners have been fighting with TYC over the space since the real estate group bought it two years ago. The group resisted the company when they ordered them out and threatened to raze the garden in January of 2014. Last summer, contractors for TYC tried to board up the space, but stopped when gardeners protested.
The group has tried fundraising to buy the space, but gave up when TYC demanded $1 million for the property last year.
