City Council Hearing Tuesday Nov. 1 at 9:30 on Pier 40/St. John's/Hudson River Park Air Rights Plan - Please Attend and Write!
The City Council will hold its public hearing on the proposed Pier 40/St. John’s Terminal plan, and on the potential transfer of Hudson River Park Air Rights, next Tuesday, November 1 at 9:30 a.m. in the City Council Chambers at City Hall. GVSHP strongly urges you to attend and testify, and to send letters to City Councilmembers NOW about this very important issue. The City Council has the ultimate say on whether any of these proposals are approved or modified.
We have made great progress in our efforts to limit the impacts of the project on the surrounding South and West Village, and to grant these neighborhoods much-needed protections from future overdevelopment. Last week, the City agreed to move ahead with consideration of the final phase of GVSHP’s proposed South Village Historic District, which would grant landmark protections to over 160 buildings on ten vulnerable, historic, residential blocks. The City Planning Commission removed the “big box” stores from the St. John’s development plan, as GVSHP and others have called for. And City Councilmember Corey Johnson has gone on record supporting GVSHP’s call for a prohibition on any further air rights transfers from the Hudson River Park to Greenwich Village and Hudson Square, and the City Council has the power to enact such restrictions.
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This is the kind overdevelopment that the Greenwich Village and Meatpacking District waterfront could be open to if we don't demand changes to the City's plan. |
But we still have work to do. While the city has begun the process of considering the final phase of our proposed South Village Historic District, this does not guarantee they will approve it in whole or in part. So we must demand that the City Council not approve any measures until the South Village landmarking has been approved. While the big box stores have been removed from the St. John’s proposal, large “destination retail” shops which will generate huge amounts of traffic are still included in the proposal, and must be removed. And while we have a strong commitment from Councilmember Johnson to fight for protections for the entire Greenwich Village and Hudson Square waterfront from any further potential air rights transfers, we cannot rest until such guarantees are written into any approvals for this plan (there are at least 1.3 million additional square feet of “air rights” which the State Legislature authorized moving from the Hudson River Park to adjacent neighborhoods like ours).
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Without the landmark protections we are demanding, a 300 ft. tall tower, as pictured here, could be built in the South Village south of Houston Street, here on the south side of Houston between Sullivan and Thompson Streets. |
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