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NYU Expansion Review Process Gets Rowdy Start

By Andrea Swalec | January 5, 2012 10:49am
City Councilmember Margaret Chin and Community Board 2 chair Brad Hoylman spoke at a Jan. 4, 2012 meeting on NYU's proposed expansion.
City Councilmember Margaret Chin and Community Board 2 chair Brad Hoylman spoke at a Jan. 4, 2012 meeting on NYU's proposed expansion.
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DNAinfo/Andrea Swalec

GREENWICH VILLAGE — Public evaluation of NYU's plan to expand by more than 2 million square feet in the Village over the next two decades began Wednesday night when about 200 people voiced their opposition.

Terri Cude, co-chair of activist group the Community Action Alliance on NYU 2031 — one of dozens of groups that joined Community Board 2 for the "Community United Town Hall on NYU 2031" — said NYU's expansion plan for central Greenwich Village would create chaos in the neighborhood during 20 years of construction.

The final product would add space that primarily serves the university, not the broader community, she said.

"The existing zoning for this neighborhood is appropriate for this neighborhood," Cude said. "Enough is enough. … We really don't need to live on NYU's campus." 

No one spoke in favor of NYU's 20-year expansion plan at a Jan. 4, 2012 meeting on the project's impact on Greenwich Village.
No one spoke in favor of NYU's 20-year expansion plan at a Jan. 4, 2012 meeting on the project's impact on Greenwich Village.
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DNAinfo/Andrea Swalec

Under the NYU 2031 plan, the university is requesting that the city rezone two large blocks bordered by Mercer Street, West Houston Street, LaGuardia Place and West Third Street in order to create four new buildings. 

Approval by Community Board 2, Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer, the City Planning Commission and the City Council under the city's seven-month-long Uniform Land Use Review Procedure would allow the creation of additional academic space, student and faculty housing, a new athletic facility, a university-affiliated hotel and retail space.

City Councilmember Margaret Chin attended Wednesday's meeting at the Center for Architecture on LaGuardia Place, where locals crammed into a lower-level meeting room and mezzanine. Chin did not take a position on the expansion but said she would represent her constituents in City Council. 

"I'm taking a lead on this," she said. "I will be there for you." 

Leaders of the group, including Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation executive director Andrew Berman, called on elected officials to issue "absolute no" votes on the project, not yes or no with conditions. 

Brad Hoylman, chair of CB2, which will issue an advisory vote on the zoning request in February, said the board's role was to listen to locals. None of those residents spoke in favor of the plan Wednesday.

"We're going to write a resolution that reflects all of your hopes, concerns and your assessment of what this proposal would mean for the neighborhood," he said. 

NYU vice president for government relations and community engagement, Alicia Hurley, welcomed community feedback in a written statement issued Wednesday. 

"[A] candid and lively exchange with our neighbors and stakeholders has been a major feature of the five-year planning process that brought us to this point, and we look forward to continuing to engage in constructive dialogue," she said. 

A page of the NYU 2031 website called "Why NYU Must Grow" calls maintaining the "vitality of [the university's] presence in New York City, centered at Washington Square" its "most important goal."