GREENWICH VILLAGE — A coalition of block associations and local businesses want to propose an alternative expansion plan for the IFC Film Center, but say IFC executives refuse to meet with them.
The IFC is investing millions of dollars — well more than $10 million, according to a spokeswoman — in an expansion that will double the height, width and number of seats in the theater.
The building would extend back into a long-vacant lot on Cornelia Street. But that extension requires a variance from the city to change the zoning from residential to commercial.
The Landmarks Preservation Commission already approved the design for the Cornelia Street façade.
Cornelia Street residents and businesses are balking at that zoning change, arguing that the block's character is vested in its residential nature. They have formed a coalition and hired a land use lawyer to help them defend their block.
"All of us are members of the IFC," said Leif Arntzen, a Cornelia Street resident since the 1980s and a member of the coalition. "The first time I heard about this plan, I thought, 'This could be great. You want to be an institution here, great, we want you to be too.'"
But Arntzen said when he and his neighbors took issue with the plan to extend onto Cornelia Street, the IFC seemed to have "no bandwidth to talk about an alternative plan."
"Most arthouses would be open to a creative solution, but it always seems to come back down to this, 'No, it's this way or no way,'" he said. "These are theater people. Why are they so hard about this? What kind of institution is this going to be, then?"
A spokeswoman for the IFC Center said the company has met with the leadership of the Cornelia Street Block Association and the local community board, and have reached out to the Central Village Block Association.
"We have been talking to and trying to engage the local community throughout this process and we look forward to continuing a constructive dialogue with those who question the expansion," said spokeswoman Roxanne Donovan. "The IFC Center has always been committed to bringing real value to our community and to being a good neighbor."
But Arntzen said that wasn't the case.
"Have we really ever had a meaningful opportunity to meet with them and discussion concerns? I don't think so," he said.
Another member of the coalition, Carmine Street Block Association head and former Community Board 2 chair David Gruber, said he has met with a member of the IFC's leadership, but "everything we bring up is dismissed like we're Village crazies."
"I resent that because we're saying, 'Slow down, hold up,' we're being NIMBY," Gruber said, employing an acronym for the term Not In My Backyard, used to describe people who are resistant to neighborhood change.
He said that they have also suggested the theater use the Cornelia Street portion for something other than commercial purposes, such as classrooms, editing rooms or artists' residences.
"We are not saying no," Gruber said. "We're saying yes to IFC, yes to expansion. [But] they don't really want to talk about anything else."
The theater must get its variance approved by the city's Board of Standards and Appeals.
Community Board 2's land use committee will hold a hearing on the movie theater's variance application at its meeting Wednesday night at 6:30 p.m. at the Scholastic building at 557 Broadway, in the 11th floor conference room.
