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St. Vincent's Land Use Review Process Gets Rowdy Start

By Andrea Swalec | September 16, 2011 9:41am
People opposed to Rudin Management's development plans in the Village held up signs and interrupted speakers at a Sept. 15, 2011 meeting.
People opposed to Rudin Management's development plans in the Village held up signs and interrupted speakers at a Sept. 15, 2011 meeting.
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DNAinfo/Andrea Swalec

GREENWICH VILLAGE — The seven-month-long public review process for the development of land formerly owned by St. Vincent's Hospital had a noisy start Thursday.

Representatives for Rudin Management described to members of Community Board 2's land use committee and the St Vincent's Committee how they planned to convert the area near Seventh Avenue and 12th Street into a medical complex, luxury condos, townhouses, park space and an elementary school. 

But dozens of residents interrupted the presenters multiple times with shouted questions, whistles and booing. Protestors came bearing placards with messages including "Jane Jacobs would save St. Vincent's," in reference to the urban planning activist credited with stopping plans in the 1960s for an expressway intended to cut through lower Manhattan. 

Retired St. Vincent's nurse Jane Korczynski gathered signatures on Sept. 15, 2011 in opposition to St. Vincent's plans to transform the Village.
Retired St. Vincent's nurse Jane Korczynski gathered signatures on Sept. 15, 2011 in opposition to St. Vincent's plans to transform the Village.
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DNAinfo/Andrea Swalec

To wild applause, Coalition for a Village Hospital leader Yetta Kurland called the Rudins' plans unacceptable. 

"I see no community benefit to this proposal. I see no benefit to this community board to approve this outrageous up-zoning," she said. 

Village resident Philip Schaeffer said he thought Rudin Management had insufficiently explained to the community what they will provide in lieu of a full-service hospital. 

"The one thing the developer has not done is say why the zoning should be changed," he said. "The burden of proof is on the Rudins." 

The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday that the Rudins recently secured $525 million in construction funding.

Several people expressed disappointment that elected officials haven't come out against the Rudins' plan. 

Eileen Dunn, a former president of the nursing union at St. Vincent's and a nurse there for 25 years, said, "It doesn't make sense to me that the politicians in this town haven't said a word.

"The community has had complete silence from them." 

The community board's land use and St. Vincent's committees will meet for another major meeting in October, board chair Brad Hoylman said. Other committees will discuss the plan's effects on education and public health, for example, in meetings this month and next. 

Hoylman said the community board has no position yet in favor of or opposed to the plans.

"We'll reserve our judgement until next month," he said, when the board will reach a resolution.