This is the kind of overdevelopment that the Greenwich Village and Meatpacking District waterfront could be open to if we don't get changes to the City's plan.

The City Planning Commission today voted to grant approvals for a development on the three-block site of the St. John’s Terminal at Houston and West Streets, sending the application to the City Council, where it will face it final review. The City Planning Commission, consisting of a majority of appointees of the Mayor, made slight changes to the proposal, but failed to include most of the changes demanded by GVSHP and many other community groups. It was always assumed that the City Planning Commission would likely be unresponsive to most of these demands, and that the City Council, to which the application is now headed, would be the only way to get significant changes to the plan and protections for the surrounding neighborhood.

This type of development could occur in the South Village if we don't get landmark protections as part of the City's plan.

The City Planning Commission added some requirements for publicly accessible space to the development, and eliminated ‘Big Box’ retail from the plan. However, the city has still not agreed to the following demands from GVSHP and other community groups:

• Landmark protections for nearby unlandmarked portion of the South Village, to protect it from the increased development pressure the project would create
  
  
• Prohibitions on any further air rights transfers from the Hudson River Park within Community Board #2 (Canal to 14th Street), protecting the Greenwich Village waterfront from as much as 1.5 million sq. ft. or more of additional development which could be enabled by air rights transfers approved by the State Legislature in 2013
  
  
  
  
• Replacement of traffic-generating “destination retail” with locally-oriented retail and adequate limitations on the size of retail spaces, so as not to worsen traffic problems in the area
  
  

Read GVSHP’s testimony calling for these changes.

This type of traffic will only increase if changes are not made to the City's plan.

GVSHP has been working closely with City Councilmember Corey Johnson on these issues, and the permits and zoning changes being sought by the developer cannot be granted without the approval of the City Council. If no approvals are granted by the City Council, the developer can still build a very large commercial project on the site; the current proposal is for a largely residential development which would include some affordable housing and generate $100 million towards repair of the public playing fields at Pier 40 (more background here).

GVSHP will alert the public when hearings at the City Council have been scheduled.