FORT GREENE — A small public seating area could soon replace two parking spaces in front of the BRIC cultural center.
The mini-plaza, part of the Department of Transportation’s Street Seats program, would be installed on Rockwell Place near Fulton Street, DOT officials said Tuesday at a Community Board 2 meeting.
The 6-by-20-foot public seating area would include about 12 seats and six tables atop a plastic pallet on the street furnished with planter boxes.
The furniture would be installed next to the bike corral in front of BRIC, which shares a building with the glass-blowing studio UrbanGlass near Fulton Street.
The seats would be accessible only during BRIC’s business hours — from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Friday, and from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. on weekends. The moveable seats would be removed from the street after business hours by BRIC staff.
The seats would only be open March through December.
The publicly accessible furniture would be an extension of the town-hall style seating inside BRIC that’s already open to community members, said Lauren Testa, an operations manager for the organization.
“It’s something that we would love our neighbors and community members to enjoy,” Testa said at the meeting.
The DOT would install safety measures for users, including a 2-foot buffer between the structure and traffic, flexible posts along the edge, and “wheel stop bars” on both ends that would prevent cars from bumping the structure.
The DOT would also add a painted white parking line and “No Standing Anytime” signs next to the structure.
Some residents at Tuesday’s meeting expressed concern about the loss of parking, suggesting that the DOT add two parking spaces somewhere else along the street to make up for those lost.
“Every parking space is precious,” said Fort Greene resident Lucy Koteen. “The community has lost an enormous amount of parking spaces due to curb build-outs, bus stop build-outs, CitiBikes being inserted in the area.”
The DOT said the structure and signs would be removed completely during the winter months, opening the spaces back up to parking from January through March.
CB2’s Transportation Committee approved the proposal unanimously. The project will go before the full board on Thursday, Oct. 13.
