City Holds Tech Hub Hearings
Without Public Notice

Last Wednesday, the City Planning Commission (controlled by the Mayor) held its sole public hearing on the proposed 14th Street Tech Hub and its potential impacts upon the surrounding Greenwich Village and East Village neighborhoods, with virtually no notice to the public and elected officials. GVSHP feels strongly that without the zoning and/or landmark protections for the surrounding neighborhood that we have been calling for, the Tech Hub will accelerate oversized and inappropriate development in the surrounding area, and must not be approved unless accompanied by such protections – read our testimony to the City Planning Commission here. In spite of the lack of notice, dozens of neighborhood residents and community leaders showed up to express their opposition to approval of the Tech Hub without such protections also being provided.

In spite of the Mayor’s continued opposition and his attempts to keep the public out of the process, we are making progress. After initially opposing any link between the need for neighborhood protections and the Tech Hub, Borough President Gale Brewer did include mention of the need for such protections as one of the conditions of the approval, though her language and commitment were not quite as strong as we would have liked. Similarly, after many members of Community Board #3 also opposed any linkage between the two, earlier this year they unanimously passed a resolution making the provision of such protections one of the conditions of their approval of the Tech Hub. The City Planning Commission will likely vote in June, and as it is controlled by the Mayor, it is widely expected they will approve the Tech Hub without any neighborhood protections.

Thus as we knew it would, the fate of our neighborhoods will come down to Councilmember Carlina Rivera. The Tech Hub cannot move ahead without the approval of the City Council, and Councilmember Rivera has the power to tell the Mayor that the only way the Council (which will follow her lead on this local land use issue) will approve his Tech Hub is if the proposed protections for the surrounding Greenwich Village and East Village neighborhoods are also provided. Councilmember Rivera pledged to do so during her campaign for office and has been working hard to convince the Mayor to provide such protections, but he has not yet agreed to do so.

Make sure our neighborhoods are not overwhelmed by out-of-character and out-of-scale development triggered in part by the Tech Hub:

Previous: 5/8/18

City Holds Tech Hub Hearings Without Public Notice

City Holds Tech Hub Hearings
Without Public Notice