News Downtown

Brooklyn school districts to add school seats in response to increased development

March 29, 2016 By Scott Enman Brooklyn Daily Eagle
Graphic courtesy of New York City Independent Budget Office
Graphic courtesy of New York City Independent Budget Office
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The recent influx of new developments in Brooklyn and an increasing demand for future properties among real estate developers are putting a strain on the borough’s infrastructure.

According to Downtown Brooklyn Partnership (DBP) Executive Director Tucker Reed, schools are feeling the most pressure from this increase in development.

Brooklyn needs “infrastructure across the board to support this growth” and DBP is “encouraging fresh uses in land use policy to support and encourage [such] development … there’s not nearly enough [school seats] to accommodate the amount of residential development in the pipeline,” Reed said at a community board meeting last month.  

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But a recent report by the Independent Budget Office indicates that school districts across Brooklyn are set to receive more school seats to accommodate this increase in development.  “The funding of additional school seats to meet the overwhelming projected demand is great news. We look forward to working with the SCA [School Construction Authority] to find suitable locations for them in Downtown Brooklyn,” Reed told the Eagle on Tuesday. 

The three Brooklyn districts that will gain the most seats in the new plan are districts 15, 13 and 19.

District 15, which covers Sunset Park, Park Slope, Carroll Gardens, Gowanus and Red Hook, will receive almost 1,650 new seats, bringing the total to more than 3,800.

There are 1,500 new seats for District 13, which includes northern Park Slope, Prospect Heights, DUMBO, the Navy Yard and Fort Greene. The total number of seats in the district is now 2,600.

Lastly, District 19, which covers Cypress Hills and East New York, is now expected to get an additional 1,000-seat school as part of Mayor Bill de Blasio’s East New York Community Plan.

Brooklyn’s District 15 and District 30, which covers northwestern Queens, are among the districts with the most total seats in the plan.

The Independent Budget Office’s report is viewable at this link.  

According to the DBP, existing projects like City Point, which is slated to open this year, will place further pressure on the infrastructure.

In addition, hotels are being built across the borough to accommodate an expected increase in guests.

For example, another 700 rooms are currently under construction across four hotels that will be added to an already existing 1,500 rooms.


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