Parents demand city pull plug on EV charging station across from Brooklyn school
Plans for an EVgo charging station on the corner of Fifth Avenue and 92nd Street in Bay Ridge are cruising along thanks to new City of Yes zoning updates that make it easier to build green energy technology and bypass community board input.
EVgo submitted plans to raze the former KFC located at the site, though construction permits had not been filed yet, Crain's New York reported last week.
Parents worry the charging station would bring more traffic to already dangerous roads around PS/IS 104, expose kids to potential radiation and bring the risk of fires that are more intense and difficult to extinguish.
'This is not something that should be built across from a school with over 1,000 children,' John Ricottone, a parent and first vice president president of the Community Education Council for District 20, told The Post.
Ricottone is leading the charge calling for further safety evaluations of the site.
'Placing EV stations in such a high-traffic, accident-prone area—directly adjacent to an elementary school—is both reckless and dangerous,' he contended in a letter to the community, school staffers and city officials.
There have been several hit-and-run accidents and pedestrians hit by cars in the area in recent years, Ricottone said.
'The safety of our children and the wellbeing of our community must take precedence over infrastructure that can—and should—be located in a safer, more appropriate location,' he wrote in the letter.
The lot was purchased by the Los Angeles-based EV charging company in 2022 for $5.3 million, according to reports.
EVgo did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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