Don't sell VCJC building just yet

To the Editor:

We are deeply disappointed and dismayed that the Van Cortlandt Jewish Center is preparing to sell its prominent Sedgwick Avenue building and adjacent private house on Stevenson Place to a developer who could transform a central part of this crossroads of our community. 

VCJC has been an anchor in the community for more than half a century, meeting multiple needs for senior citizens and children, not to mention the thousands who attended services and celebrated important milestones in their lives. The sale in question would disregard our community’s best interests and needs.

We understand that the VCJC president, chair, and board have been secretly working on selling the 30,000-square-foot building to a developer with no connection to our Bronx community.  This developer has just purchased adjacent properties on Stevenson Place and therefore could turn what has been a pastoral center of the Van Cortlandt Village and Kingsbridge communities into a large apartment complex that will not be affordable to many in our own neighborhood.

We cannot understand how people from our community could show such disregard for the impact of the loss of this community facility. How can they not consider what a large development would do to increase traffic and congestion in the neighborhood, crowd our local schools, and further strain the limited parking in the neighborhood?  We are also concerned about a new building’s impact on our infrastructure, including the water and sewer systems and pollution. These factors are particularly important due to the project’s proximity to the reservoir and our local Fort Independence Park.

Building housing without a community plan negatively impacts children and families, senior citizens, the local environment, and essentially everyone in the region.

There are alternatives to this sale that could benefit the VCJC congregation and the broader community that the VCJC board has refused to consider. Local developers and community institutions have expressed interest in purchasing the building and/or renting significant portions of the space and repurposing it in community-friendly ways that include a sanctuary for the congregation, as well as working with local providers for seniors, community centers, health care organizations, and more.

We call on the VCJC to work with us and initiate a community dialogue that will help them maintain their congregation and allow us to work together to support our family-friendly community and its needs.

Fischel Baiser, Petr Stand and Rocio Santos-Carillo

These authors represent a group of VCJC congregants and neighbors.