Bronx community center caught in encroachment squabble

The Department of Buildings is refusing to issue a permanent certificate of occupancy for the Bronx’s new $14 million, four-story Mount Hope Community Center, 15 feet of which encroach on three-eighths of an inch of city property. The Center, with opened last June at 55 East 175th Street, does not match the original site plan submitted to the buildings department, and officials at the Mount Hope Housing Company were given the choice to either remove the overlapping part of the structure, issue an appeal at the borough president’s office, or enter a legal agreement with the owners of the 15-foot by three-eighths of an inch parcel. Mount Hope officials chose the appeal. Until the issue is resolved, the city’s Department of Youth and Community Development will have to wait to move in and run the center’s planned children’s programs. In the interim, the center can use its temporary certificate of occupancy to rent out space for events, while students are using Public School 306 for programs. [NYDN]