By Nicole Breskin
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
CITY HALL — In an attempt to appease Greenwich Village residents grumbling over its expansion plans, New York University announced Thursday it would provide space for a public elementary school in the heart of area that could help alleviate classroom overcrowding in the district.
The university will offer space for a 600-student, kindergarten-through-grade-five elementary school in the heart of its Village campus, said Senior VP for University Relations and Public Affairs Lynne Brown.
The news came on the heels of the release of a new report by the Community Task Force on NYU Development — which included politicians, community leaders and neighborhood activists — that took issue with the breadth of the university's expansion plans.
The study said that a proposal to add millions of square feet to the campus would be "overwhelming" to the local community.
Borough President Scott Stringer, who is part of the task force, said the offer of an elementary school was a “huge give” by the university, but he said more substantial compromises would need to be made in the future.
“By pledging to build this elementary school, the university has done more than pay lip service to community needs,” Stringer said. “It has taken action that will make a real difference in the lives of hundreds of Greenwich Village families.”
Stringer pointed out that the study was being released in an effort to tackle the sometimes difficult relationship between administrators and the neighborhood.
"I have said in the past that brokering this relationship is like negotiating the Israeli-Palestinian conflict," he said.
NYU is scheduled to detail its highly-controversial development plans, which are expected to add 40 percent growth to the school overall within the next 20 years, in April.
As part of the plans, the elementary school would comprise a sliver of the six million square feet that the university said it hopes to grow into.
Brown said half of the new ground would be developed at off-campus remote sites — from Chelsea to Governor's Island — but a full three million square feet of expansion space would come out of Greenwich Village, much to the worry of many locals, some of whom are part of the task force.
Preservation Andrew Berman has already disputed with NYU over plans to build a spiritual center that would tower over a local landmarked church, along with the university's decision to demolish the Provincetown Playhouse, where Eugene O'Neill's plays were performed.
“I am deeply concerned about the university’s plans,” said Berman, the executive director of the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation.
“This kind of development they’re proposing is overwhelming for the neighborhood. It’s enormously contentious at best, disastrous at worst.”
Ellen Horan, of the LaGuardia Community Gardens group and a member of the task force added: “The expansion is difficult to swallow. We cherish what few vital open spaces we have.”
But NYU spokesperson John Beckman points out that the school has a real need for the extra space.
This past year NYU received a record number of applications for its undergraduate class. The current student body is nearly 42,000 and plans to expand to some 46,000 students by 2031.
“It’s a matter of balancing legitimate space needs,” Beckman told DNAinfo. “We’re at a tipping point in terms of capacity that could stop our academic potential from being realized.”
The Department of Education said they have had discussions with NYU about the new school, but it was too early to comment on the facility, which must go through the city’s approval process.
NYU will announce full plans for development on April 14.
