By Amy Zimmer and Patrick Hedlund
DNAinfo News Editor
GREENWICH VILLAGE — New York University's plans for a massive 2.5-million-square-foot expansion began winding its way through the public review process on Tuesday, with residents and elected officials calling for the plan to be scaled back.
Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer Stringer suggested the school nix a proposed 180,000-square-foot hotel and back down from acquiring "park strips" around buildings it owns along Mercer and LaGuardia streets in testimony to a planning department hearing.
"Like other major developments, this project must balance local needs with the university's need to expand," Stringer said in prepared testimony, where he also asked NYU to provide space for a new public school.
NYU's 20-year strategic plan could boost the city's "economic, cultural and intellectual capital," Stringer said. But he warned against giving the university a carte blanche to expand.
"If that expansion is undertaken without proper community consultation or appreciation for shared physical space, there could be a negative impact to the delicate balance that underlies the continued success of the Greenwich Village neighborhood," he said.
During the public comment period, a steady stream of Villagers and community board members repeated words like "inappropriate" and "overwhelm" in describing the current plan.
"It's full of Swiss cheese," said Community Board 2 member David Gruber, casting doubts on a number of details, including the school's plan to add 55,000 square feet of commercial space. "They're asking for a blank check. ... We don't do that in the Village."
Andrew Berman, executive director of the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, said the university could take steps to avoid having to develop so much new property, such as scheduling more classes on Fridays.
He urged the school to consider alternatives in the historic neighborhood that would not "undeniably, irreversibly that character."
Others worried about the impacts on long-term residents in the immediate area, especially seniors.
"What is to become of us?" asked a member of Washington Place Block Association, speaking of the possible displacement of local residents or the loss of rent-regulated housing as a result of the expansion. "Where are we to go?"
Those who spoke in favor of the proposal cited the need for NYU to remain competitive and its economic benefit to the community as reasons to support the project.
"There is no single institution more important to our organization than NYU," said Tony Juliano, president of the Greenwich Village-Chelsea Chamber of Commerce, calling the college the "economic lifeblood of our neighborhood."
Richard T. Anderson, president of the New York Building Congress, said the school should be allowed to proceed with its plans because it is "perennially challenged with space constraints" as an urban campus.
He earned harrumphs from the crowd when suggesting that by building on NYU's own footprint, the school "will not grow in a way that overwhelms the neighborhood."
Some of plan's foes suggested the university explore options in lower Manhattan, which would benefit from the growth.
Others made no attempt to hide their opinion that NYU is acting like a bully.
"NYU is the bad guy in this situation," added a representative from the Bleecker Area Merchants and Residents Association. "Let's make no bones about it."
The college's growth plan does not only include Greenwich Village, where it wants to add 2.5 million square feet to the "superblocks" between Houston and Bleecker Streets and Mercer to LaGuardia streets.
The university released a statement Tuesday saying it also will build a new 170,000 square-foot building at 433 First Ave. between 25th and 26th streets.
The new building will house NYU's College of Nursing, which is currently located in Greenwich Village, along with the university’s College of Dentistry, which was consolidated academically with the College of Nursing six years ago but has been housed in a building on East 24th Street and First Avenue.
"Their physical consolidation is both the natural outgrowth of that academic decision and in line with the goals of the 2031 plan, by maximizing the use of our existing footprint and freeing up space in our core,” said Lynne Brown, an NYU official.
NYU also announced that its engineering affiliate, the Polytechnic Institute of NYU, will expand into neighboring space in downtown Brooklyn's MetroTech Center.
Local residents like Terri Cude would like to see NYU look for more space elsewhere, particularly the Financial District, rather than move forward with building more in the Village.
NYU's plans for the neighborhood are "willfully inadequate," said Cude, co-chair of the Community Action Alliance on NYU 2031, "because it does not study how the proposal will irrevocably change the Village into their campus."
She believes their plan would make her neighborhood unrecognizable as the Village.
"We, the community, don't need a hotel," Cude said. "We certainly don't need a dormitory for over 1,000 people. There's no reason to take open space and then claim to be giving back open space by surrounding it by four buildings and say it's more accessible."
As someone who took the subway two stops to go to gym during high school, Cude didn't think it would be a big deal for "a 19-year-old from Omaha" to have to ride the train to the Financial District for NYU classes.
NYU officials said they've been discussing their plans with the community for more than three years and would keep the conversation going.
"We look forward to continuing our dialog with the community and other key stakeholders as we move toward full review and approval next year," said Alicia Hurley, another NYU official.
