CRITICAL HEARING THIS THURSDAY NIGHT –
MEGA-DEVELOPMENT AND HUGE TRAFFIC
FOR THE SOUTH AND WEST VILLAGE,
OR LONG-OVERDUE NEIGHBORHOOD PROTECTIONS?
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Currently more than a million additional square feet of “air rights,” or development, could be added to the waterfront blocks in Greenwich Village. |
Thursday night Community Board #2 will take a critical vote affecting the future of our  neighborhood. The City and a developer have proposed a massive development on the St. John’s site (Houston andWest Street) that would generate enormous amounts of traffic with a huge retail complex, provide no protections for increased development pressures on surrounding neighborhoods like the South Village, and could be just the first step in allowing MORE THAN A MILLION SQUARE FEET OF “AIR RIGHTS” TO BE TRANSFERRED TO THE WESTERNMOST BLOCKS IN GREENWICH VILAGE, tremendously increasing overdevelopment in the area. Public officials have said that this project is the ONLY way they will fund much-needed repairs of Pier 40 and its popular public playing fields.
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This section of the low-rise, historic, residential South Village, near the proposed St. John’s development, still lacks landmark protections. |
We are urging Community Board #2 to make any development of the St. John’s site contingent upon:
1. Eliminating enormous amounts of traffic-generating “destination retail” and Big Box stores from the plan
2. Providing long-overdue landmark protections we have proposed for the nearby South Village, which will suffer increased development pressure without them, and
3. Restricting ANY future air rights transfers from the Hudson River Park EVER into any other part of Community Board #2 (14th Street to Canal Street, west side)
We have much support on Community Board #2 for making these conditions requirements for any approvals for new development on the St. John’s site, but we need to make sure the Board and elected officials know how strongly we feel about this, and that ANY APPROVALS ARE UNACCEPTABLE WITHOUT THEM.
HERE’S HOW TO HELP:
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Come to the Community Board #2 hearing this Thursday, July 21 at the Scholastic Building Basement Auditorium, 557 B’way (just south of Prince Street). The meeting starts at 6:30 but you can sign up to speak at 6, so arrive BEFORE 6 if possible to sign up early (you can sign up until 7). You will have about two minutes. Ask for the three conditions above in the Board’s resolution about Pier 40/St. John’s.
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If you can’t come to the meeting (or even if you can) send an email NO LATER THAN EARLY THURSDAY to CB 2 telling urging them to include these conditions – CLICK HERE to send.
What happens here will permanently affect the future of our neighborhood. Send a letter or come to a hearing now, and we can protect our neighborhood and prevent the crushing impacts of totally inappropriate overdevelopment.
Previous: 07/18/16
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