Council continues hearing on proposed transfer of Olmsted pocket park to Waldorf School

Council held a lengthy public hearing on Ordinance 2026-01109, the request to close and transfer about 11,105 square feet of right-of-way and an adjacent pocket park to the Waldorf School. Neighbors argued the parcel is part of a Frederick Law Olmsted–designed landscape and said converting the green wedge into a parking lot would damage the neighborhood’s historic fabric and unsafe the high-injury Brooklyn Parkway corridor.

Opponents described the triangular park as "part of the original Olmstead design," and warned that a parking lot would be "a parking lot right on Brooklyn Parkway." David Mayer, a nearby resident, told council that converting the city-owned pocket park would break the continuity of the Olmsted landscape. In response, school representatives including executive director Andrew Ross and urban planner Laurie Markham said the school closed the slip lane years ago, asserted that the transfer would allow safety and site improvements at no cost to the city, and offered to negotiate a memorandum of understanding with neighbors. Councilwoman Gibson moved to continue the ordinance to September 28 to allow the administration to provide requested traffic studies, reconcile differing parking counts in the ordinance notice, and to allow consideration of any formal agreement between the school and neighbors; the motion passed.