THE DAILY NEWS

By Erin Durkin

East Harlem residents are blasting a de Blasio administration plan to move a sanitation garage used to store dump trucks to 127th St. and Third Ave.

They complain that the site is just a few blocks away from an existing garage on 131st St. and near two schools. Sanitation plans to move from a garage on 99th St.

“The new garage would expose thousands of nearby students, park visitors, and other community members to truck fumes and loud noise. This would exacerbate air quality problems that have already made children in East Harlem more susceptible to asthma than others across the city,” the New Harlem East Merchants Association wrote in a letter to Sanitation Commissioner Kathryn Garcia.

Sanitation spokesman Vito Turso said the existing garage that is being moved is structurally deficient and the second floor parking level has been off limits to vehicles for several years.

Because the garage is too small, Sanitation has been parking trucks on the street next to Metropolitan Hospital.

“In addition, recent hospital and residential development projects nearby have led to calls from the community to relocate the garage to a more suitable site,” he said.