By Jess Wisloski

January 8, 2005 -- Sometimes convenience is a real nuisance.

That’s what a group of Park Slope residents are saying about plans by Commerce Bank, which bills itself as “America’s Most Convenient Bank,” to build a drive-through branch on Fifth Avenue at First Street.

The drive-through, they charge, will pose a danger to pedestrians and bicyclists — and they’re not too hot on the bank’s plan for an illuminated sign, either.

But elected officials and Commerce Bank executives seemed caught off-guard by the sudden outcry from the fledgling organization Park Slope Neighbors, which sent an 1,100-signature petition to the bank’s chairman and president, Vernon Hill.

Park Slope Neighbors founder Aaron Naperstek, a proponent of alternative forms of transportation to cars, characterized the grassroots organization as “a group of younger families living in the Slope between Fourth and Sixth Avenue” that was formed to address the Commerce Bank proposal.

“Some of us have known about it since the summer,” said Naperstek, “but it didn’t really come to public attention until recently.”

Unsatisfied with the action being taken by the Park Slope Civic Council or Community Board 6, Naparstek said he spoke with other residents about forming a new group.

The Neighbors members hope to accomplish three things with respect to the bank plan: first, convince Commerce to get rid of the threelane drive-through they have planned (hence eliminating a 29-foot curb cut); avoid having the standard glowing sign erected; and persuade the company to use the empty lot and two adjacent small apartment buildings they’re planning to tear down to accommodate the drive-thru to instead to erect a building that could house a variety of commercial tenants.

“Fifth Avenue is a burgeoning shopping street,” Naparstek said, calling it a good street for pedestrians and bikers. “This is the kind of development that has destroyed main streets across the country.”

David Alquist, another Neighbors member, called the plan for a drive-through “pedestrian hostile” and said he imagined a better model would be “more like the kind on Seventh Avenue, that are walk-up banks instead of drive-through banks.”

Branches for Commerce Bank, which is based in Cherry Hill, N.J., have been multiplying along the East Coast the last couple of years.  In 2003, the company opened branches in Brooklyn Heights, Windsor Terrace, Bensonhurst and Sheepshead Bay with plans to open 15 in Brooklyn by 2008.

Last summer, as plans for the Park Slope drive-through branch proceeded, Commerce Bank and Assemblywoman Joan Millman hosted a meeting at Borough Hall about the location in Park Slope.

At the meeting, said Cori Freedman, Millman’s chief of staff, members of the First Street Block Association aired their concerns about the bank, which was to feature a brown, slatted, McDonalds-style roof, and white-brick base along the entrance, that had been planned for First Street.

Residents also complained about the glowing sign that is common at Commerce Bank drive-throughs, as well as the planned landscaping.

Commerce Bank’s representative at the meeting, Jack Rainey, vice president of governmental and community banking, vowed to change the color of the building from white to red brick, moved the entrance to Fifth Avenue and “changed some of the lighting,” said Freedman.

“They basically just told the community they’d have input as to how it would be illuminated, in terms of the glowing sign, but didn’t say it wouldn’t be lit,” she said.

But after the meeting, she thought the issue had blown over.

So did Rainey, who told The Brooklyn Papers this week that the bank was about to present their finalized plans and start developing the lot for a July 2005 open date.

“We want to show everyone what it’s going to look like,” he said, adding that he will be setting up a presentation before CB6.

“Unfortunately, it’s also past the midnight hour,” Rainey said. “Everyone thought this was an old issue. Everyone was kind of surprised when this bubbled back up.”

Rainey, who characterized his role as the “show and tell guy” said Commerce Bank officials felt they had very much taken to heart the community’s concerns from the last meeting.

“First Street was very happy with our redesign, and very happy we came to the table willingly and met with them,” he said.

Not so, claims Paul Heller, president of the First Street Block Association.

“Basically, we’re not happy about it; we’re very unhappy about it,” said Heller.

“Are we happy there’s not a drive-through on First Street? Yeah, we’re happy about that,” he said, but added that overall the issue of a car-oriented commercial establishment was still inappropriate.

“People are sort of resigned that they’re going to build this, that they’re a corporate steamroller, and we really can’t do anything about it,” Heller said, predicting that nobody would be chaining themselves to the lot in the face of literal steamrollers.

But, he added, “Basically they’re repelled and disgusted by having such an ugly and inappropriate structure.”