The longtime head of an influential Brooklyn Heights civic group is eyeing the exit.
Judy Stanton, executive director of the 104-year-old Brooklyn Heights Association, has announced that she will retire next August after more than three decades with the group.
The organization issued a statement calling Stanton “the face of the BHA” and praising her contributions to the neighborhood.
“Her tenure reflects an exceptional dedication, integrity and passion for dealing with all issues that concern Brooklyn Heights,” the statement says. “Her experience and deep community roots have been invaluable to the neighborhood.”
Stanton served on the board of governors of the Association starting in the late 1980s and was later hired as director.
The Heights Association was founded in 1910 and has played an active role in the neighborhood ever since. The group fought Robert Moses’s plan to build the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway through the heart of the neighborhood in 1945, landing concessions that paved the way for the creation of the Brooklyn Heights Promenade over a cantilevered stretch of highway. The group obtained a landmark designation for the area in 1965. And it started advocating for the creation of Brooklyn Bridge Park back in the 1980s.
As the park has neared completion, Stanton has pushed for it to conform to the Association’s preservation-minded agenda, recently demanding that an under-construction hotel be lowered to offer a better view of the Brooklyn Bridge, and that one of two proposed residential towers at Pier 6 also be trimmed.
Stanton’s last day is set for Aug. 31. The group says it will have its hands full when trying to fill her shoes.
“She has set a high bar for the BHA board, and her example will inspire us as we look to the future,” the Association statement says.
