The plan to demolish the existing Brooklyn Heights library branch and replace it with a 36-story condo with room for a new library in its base were okayed by the City Council in December, paving the way for the controversial development project. Now, new details surrounding its timeline are out (h/t Brooklyn Eagle).
Brooklyn Public Library (BPL) has announced that work on Cadman Plaza West will begin later this year and will take three to four years. The new building is slated to open in 2019 or 2020.
While the new library and condo tower is being constructed, an interim library will be set up at Our Lady of Lebanon Church on nearby Remsen Street. The branch's Business & Career library will find a new home at BPL's main Prospect Heights branch.
The controversial development cleared its final hurdle in March, when the Brooklyn Borough Board approved the $52 million sale of the land to developer Hudson Companies. The Eagle says that a number of library advocacy groups are still opposing the sale, most notably Citizens Defending Libraries who are raising money through a Go Fund Me campaign that they hope will bolster the lawsuit they plan to lob at the BPL.
Love Brooklyn Libraries, Inc., an unaffiliated offshoot of Love Brooklyn Libraries!, has filed a lawsuit with the state Supreme Court that focuses on the plan's lack of a Environmental Impact Statement. The group's attorney told the Eagle that Love Brooklyn Libraries, Inc. believes the project will negatively affect the environment, owing to increased traffic, air pollution, and noise.
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