By Tara Kyle
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
WEST VILLAGE — The atmosphere turned hostile several times at a public hearing Monday as New York University representatives fielded questions from Villagers opposed to the school's expansion plans.
The Monday night hearing was the community’s first opportunity to talk directly to the university since the June disbanding of the NYU Task Force, which was created to negotiate with the university on its expansion plans.
Cries of “Where the hell are they?” came from the crowd after Alicia Hurley, vice president in NYU’s office of university relations and public affairs, said she had heard from some neighborhood residents who looked favorably upon the plan, which is scheduled for completion in 2031.
The hearing, hosted by Community Board 2, was intended to address questions about what exactly NYU plans to add to its Village campus and why the school believes the expansion to be necessary.
Many attendees reiterated their wish that NYU would look outside the West Village, to the Financial District and beyond, for its planned 3-million-square-foot expansion of its core campus.
“We have got to have some ability to grow within and around our existing Washington Square facility,” Hurley said at the hearing in response to requests that the expansion be moved to other neighborhoods.
The university is already planning to place an additional 3 million square feet of its growth in other parts of Manhattan and the outer boroughs.
Others asked about why it is important for students to live on campus — more dorms are a key part of the expansion plan — rather than a few subway stops away, or why so much faculty housing was necessary. Some also questioned NYU’s desire to include a hotel in its plans for the Silver Towers area, which will be home to the Village's tallest building.
That university-affiliated hotel, Hurley said, is intended to support visitors including conference attendees at a reasonable price point.
“They simply can't afford hotels in this area," Hurley said of conference guests, which often includes non-profit employees. "A lot of this is trying to build an infrastructure that allows them to stay."
Speaking later, Hurley said that NYU would incorporate feedback from the hearing, including the community's emphasis on the need for an elementary school, into its proposal.
Many more meetings like this will follow now that responsibility for negotiations with NYU has shifted from the disbanded Task Force to the Community Board.
"It doesn't allow us a quiet place for discussions," Hurley said of the contrast between the public hearing format and the old Task Force meetings. "But what this does do is widen the perspective and let us hear more voices."
