Birch Wathen Lenox School given OK to shut down street for recess

A ritzy Upper East Side private school has won its fight to turn a public street into its own private playground for the academic year — prompting businesses on the block to cry foul.

Manhattan’s Community Board 8 unanimously approved an application from the $62,500-a-year Birch Wathen Lenox School to shut down East 77th Street between Second and Third avenues to foot and car traffic for two “peak” hours a day, three days a week, starting next month.

“It’s a school filled with very rich kids. It’s like the 1% taking away from the 99%,” fumed Todd Layne, whose namesake laundromat lies just a few dozen feet from the posh school.

“Why do they have the right to commandeer an entire street and disrupt the businesses on this block?”

CB 8 granted permission last month for the private K-12 school — which boasts Barbara Walters as an alum — to shut down the busy thoroughfare from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. for three days every week as part of the city’s controversial Open Streets program, as long as it keeps its promise to a usher kids off the roadway as needed to let delivery trucks or emergency vehicles through.

The 500-student school had been previously rejected when it proposed shutting down the road for five hours a day five days a week, after arguing that its rooftop playground was so small that only one grade could use it at a time.

But the mom-and-pop shops that line the block say even the now-approved shorter shutdown could still be a death sentence for their tiny economy.

“It’s a peak time for us, and it’s really going to be a major impediment to us doing business,” Layne said.

“I let the community board know about that, and they just kind of feel that it’s not that much of a big deal because they’re still going to allow cars to come through. But we don’t really understand how that’s possibly going to work.”

Toby Chancey, owner of Toby Clairty Lighting, said he could stand to lose roughly 10% of his business because his majority elderly customers drive up to his storefront.

“It’s bad for all of us on this block. I wish everything could work out for both parties, but it’s just not going to happen,” he said.

Most of the residents along the block are unhappy with the plan, too, according to Linda Cornelius, who runs the East 77th Block Association.

“We have a lot of residents who are worried about accessibility,” said Cornelius, who has lived in the Upper East Side for more than two decades.

“We have work-at-home people who are worried about noise, and honestly, it’s just a deal breaker to me is that this is an ambulance avenue,” she said of the stretch of roadway, which is regularly used by ambulances trying to reach Lenox Hill Hospital two blocks west.

“How are they going to monitor both ends of the block?” she said. “Are they prepared to do drills like you would a fire drill if an emergency vehicle needs to pass through here?”

The Birch Wathen Lenox School promised it would clear the roadway if needed.

A rep for Northwell Hospitals said the street closure wasn’t a concern.

“Ambulance teams are typically quick to adapt to redirection and signage, and we’ll make sure they’re notified in advance,” the representative told The Post.

Head of School Bill Kuhn promised that Birch Wathen Lenox would maintain an open line of communication with its neighbors throughout the coming year, after which the Open Streets plan will be up for review and could be potentially scrapped.

“We are committed to working with our neighbors to ensure the Open Streets program runs smoothly,” Kuhn said.

“Our revised Open Street proposal, which was unanimously approved by Community Board 8 with a vote of 42-0, reduced our initial plan by 70%, asking only for two hours a day, three times a week. This approval reflects our extensive community engagement and the adjustments we made to address feedback.”