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Poll Shows Citywide Support for Chelsea Market Expansion, Backers Say

By Mathew Katz | August 14, 2012 7:32pm

CHELSEA — Most of the city supports a controversial expansion to Chelsea Market, according to a poll put together by the forces behind the project.

The poll, conducted by Global Strategy Group and sponsored by the Chelsea Market Coalition, found that 68 percent of residents around the five boroughs support the expansion.

Respondents said they supported the project because of its economic benefits to the tech industry and because it includes support for local educational projects, according to the coalition.

A spokesman for Jamestown Properties, the developer behind the project, did not release the entirety of the poll. In February, the Chelsea Market Coalition released a poll claiming locals supported the expansion, but a closer analysis of the numbers showed that most respondents were opposed to proposed new office space and a hotel, which has sinced been dropped from the proposal.

The proposal would create up to a 250-foot-high extension on the building’s 10th Avenue side along with a 90,000-square-foot addition on the Ninth Avenue side.

The plan ran into significant opposition from Chelsea locals, and both Community Board 4 and Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer said it should not move forward without significant changes or concessions.

Even City Planning Commissioner Amanda Burden voiced concerns about the impact of the project on the High Line, noting that it would likely block views of the sky from the elevated park. The Commission has until September to decide whether or not to move the proposal forward.