On December 19, a community meeting was held to discuss the potential for a new elementary school to be built at 257 Franklin Street (southwest corner of Franklin and Dupont streets). The School Construction Authority (SCA) gave a presentation to provide information and reasoning for the new school at this location.
There are no designs for the new building as of yet but the SCA anticipates it will include: a 450 seat elementary school, 5- to 6-story school, and a playground. It will be fully: ADA accessible, air conditioned, and electric. The SCA will pursue additional sustainability measures (green roofs, blue roofs) for the school as per the SCA’s Green Schools Guide and local laws.
Due to this area’s rapid development over the past years, a need for an additional school has arisen. The nearest school to the area is a 20-minute walk. A school for this area was last discussed in 2019, but the community asked SCA to wait on this school site until the NuHart site was cleaned up. The site’s remediation has been completed, and the building is leasing with families moving in. The SCA acknowledges that the site has had challenges because of its proximity to NuHart, but they have done environmental due diligence at the proposed school property in 2008 and 2023. All of the collected data, including the data sets being 15 years apart, gives confidence that SCA can develop this site conducive to the health and safety of future students and staff.
“As a result of the extensive remediation of the NuHart Superfund site and no findings of contaminants at the proposed school location, the School Construction Authority is confident it is safe to build a school. We urgently need a new elementary school in Northern Greenpoint — but we are committed to soliciting community feedback to determine if this is the right location,” stated NYC Council Member Lincoln Restler.
There are advantages to a school placed at this location. The site is outside of the flood zone and would not require elevation. The parcel has frontages on both Franklin and Dupont for bus access, pick up and drop off.
For added comfort, SCA proposes to voluntarily take this site through the Mayor’s Office of Environmental Remediation’s (OER) Voluntary Cleanup Program (VCP), which comes with added layers of regulatory review and approvals. The VCP includes a robust public/community participation component which involves: online report repository which OER maintains, issuance of fact sheets to a project contact list developed and maintained by OER announcing the draft Remedial Action Plan and at the end of the project when the Notice of Completion is issued. This would be followed by a 30-day public comment period and public meetings.
The design phase for this project is estimated to take between one to two years. Construction is estimated to take between two to three years.
The Greenline 