Developer Serge Hoyda plans to build a six-story residential building atop a Lower East community garden. But locals are fighting back and have assembled a 24-hour “garden watch.”
Members of the Children’s Magical Garden, at Norfolk and Stanton streets, discovered this week that the Department of Buildings has cleared the way to begin building a the 157 Norfolk Street lot.
“We’ve been changing watches and walking around the block, keeping a watch, keeping an eye [on the lot],” Kate Temple-West, the garden’s director, told DNAinfo.
Back in March, the DOB put a hold on development to give the community a chance to comment on the building plans. That hold has now expired.
Site owner Serge Hoyda had basically abandoned the lot and it has functioned as a community garden since 1982. [DNAinfo] – Christopher Cameron