'Phony' No Parking Signs in Cobble Hill Put Up By Real Estate Developer, Pols Say

COBBLE HILL, BROOKLYN — A group of Brooklyn politicians this week blasted a real estate firm that they say put up "illegal" and "phony" no-parking signs near the site of a hospital redevelopment in Cobble Hill.

The signs cropped up around March, according to the Cobble Hill Association, and drivers were ticketed for violations they never committed. The group, which includes City Councilman Brad Lander and state Senator Daniel Squadron, wrote a letter to the Department of Transportation asking that any fines that came from the "illegal parking scheme" be reimbursed.

"Fortis's phony parking signs are another in a long string of offenses against the community -- from moving forward with a bad development plan where a hospital once stood, to unsafe construction practices and beyond," Squadron said in a statement to Patch. "It's important fines be refunded and reversed, and Fortis be held accountable."

A spokesman for Fortis Property Group, which is turning the former site of the Long Island College Hospital into luxury condos, did not immediately return a Patch request for comment.

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"Big thanks to the Cobble Hill Association for their effective advocacy and partnership, and to the NYC Department of Transportation for holding Fortis accountable for their disregard for the community," Lander said in a statement. "We will continue to work together to ensure wrongfully-issued tickets are dismissed--and prevent the developer from trespassing in our neighborhood."

According to the letter, the DOT told the group of politicians that it did "not have any authorized temporary signs on Henry Street between Pacific and Amity at this time." DOT also said it issued a Notice of Violation to the site, but the politicians want an inspector's report of the site made public.

The Cobble Hill Association sent Patch photos from the site, one of which you can see above. They also sent a close-up of a similar sign posted at a nearby construction site:

You can read the politicians' letter in full below:

All images courtesy of the Cobble Hill Association