City Planning approves Mott Haven jail, three other sites
Borough President Ruben Diaz, Jr. during a jail hearing on Tuesday, June
25. FIle Photo
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BRONX TIMES REPORTER, S BTR EPTEMBER 6-12, 2019 3
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BY ALEX MITCHELL
City offi cials agreed to go
through with its plan to construct
a $2 billion, 24-story
jail in Mott Haven, along with
other jail sites in Queens,
Manhattan and Brooklyn.
The City Planning Commission
voted to approve the
land use procedure for Mayor
de Blasio’s year and a half long
effort to phase out Rikers Island
by shifting the burden on
to a borough-based jail system
on Tuesday, September 3.
The CPC vote was 9 to
3, with the agency’s Bronx,
Queens and Staten Island representatives
casting the dissenting
votes.
The full block Bronx prison
site is currently an NYPD tow
pound at 320 Concord Avenue,
the former grounds of Lincoln
Hospital, off Bruckner Boulevard.
With an anticipated new address
of 745 E. 141st Street, the
jail’s current design includes
a layout of 1, 440 inmate beds
along with an adjacent affordable
housing complex that will
have 31,000 feet of community
space on its ground fl oor and
below ground parking for 575
vehicles, explained the May-
or’s Offi ce of Criminal Justice
deputy director Dana Kaplan.
While the closure of Rikers
Island has been widely supported
in the political arena,
the approved, Bronx jail’s replacement
location has been
been sharply criticized by
many local elected offi cials,
activists and residents.
The elevated plot of land is
surrounded by schools, some
auto body shops and by Diego
Beekman Mutual Housing’s
extensive, housing campus
that provides affordable rentals
for one thousand residents
spread across 38 rehabbed
buildings.
Prior to the jail proposal
which was announced in February,
2018, Beekman along
with its CEO Alrine Parks
aimed to purchase the tow
pound from the city to expand
its housing while also bringing
in community amenities
such as a sorely-needed supermarket
in an area often discribed
as a food desert.
Beekman sued the city over
its proposed use of the site, rallying
the support of Borough
President Ruben Diaz, Jr. and
Congressman Jose E. Serrano,
whom protested the jail with
Parks publically on multiple
occasions. “It is unfortunate
that the City Planning Commission
has declined to listen
to the serious concerns of the
people of my borough, and has
instead chosen to move forward
with a plan to close Rikers
Island that builds a new
jail in the wrong place,” Diaz
said upon the news of the CPC
vote.
The right place, according
to Diaz is adjacent to the
Bronx Hall of Justice on East
161st Street.
Specifi cally, next to a
lesser-used annex of the Bronx
family court facility, combining
that with an adjacent vacant
site next to the Bronx
Hall of Justice on East 161st
Street; doing so to “construct
a modern court and detention
facility that meets the needs
and concerns of all impacted
stakeholders,” he said.
In response to Diaz’s proposed
alternative site, Kaplan
said that utilizing the family
court site would require
the structure to be built even
taller and in an awkward confi
guration that would create a
whole slew of site issues that
include an unobstructed line
of sight.
Opponents of the jail also
criticized the city saying that
it bundled all of the proposed
facilities into one uniform
land use review procedure
(ULURP) for the sake of political
expediency.
“The administration has
weaponized the land use process
against the Bronx in order
to protect their plans to
build a new jail on the wrong
site,” the borough president
said.
The city council also voted
on the jail plan on Thursday,
September 5.
Although the Bronx Times
Reporter went to press prior
to said hearing, that vote is
essentially a formality, according
to sources, because
Councilwoman Diana Ayala,
the area’s representative, supports
the project.
The city’s new prison facilities
are expected to be completed
by 2026, according to
the city.
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