By Gary Buiso
With a unified voice, Community Board 6 last week told the city not to sell off the only remaining firehouse in Carroll Gardens. With a unanimous vote taken at its monthly meeting held at the Old First Reformed Church, the board told the Department of Citywide Administrative Services it shouldn’t abandon the building that once housed Engine Company 204. The board argued that looming and existing development in the area all but demands that the firehouse, located at 299 Degraw Street, stay open. The logic is simple: More people could put a greater strain on the area’s limited resources. Land Use Committee Chair Jerry Armer presented his committee’s motion, which requests the site not be sold or leased, and taken off the auction rolls. A full study must look at current and future growth in housing; future traffic conditions, as well as “the unique need for firefighters in regard to our aging, historic housing,” Armer said. “Emergency response times have not got down, they’ve gone up. The building should not be sold,” Armer said. Citing economic factors, the FDNY closed the building in 2003. Late last year, the city an-nounced its plan to sell off the property, a move that necessitates an exhaustive public review process, called the Uniform Land Use Review Procedure. Next up, the borough president will weigh the issue at a meeting on Jan. 24. At the board’s Land Use Committee, some suggested the building could be used to hold FDNY equipment or act as a “hotel” for members of other borough fire companies being renovated. Keeping the firehouse open has won the support of the area’s local elected officials. Assemblymember Joan Millman has suggested the property should be given landmark status, and given to a community based organization. Others have recommended that the property be handed over to the Friends of Firefighters, a group that assists New York’s firefighter community.
