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Attend the Presentation of NYU’s Revised Plans - 3/21

NYU WILL PRESENT ITS REVISED TWENTY-YEAR EXPANSION PLANS TONIGHT, MONDAY MARCH 21 at 6:30 PM at GRACE CHURCH SCHOOL AUDITORIUM, 86 FOURTH AVENUE (at 11th Street). The plans are only very modestly changed from prior iterations, but given NYU’s attempt to portray them as “responsive to community concerns,” it is critical that there be a large turnout to show that these latest plans are still completely unacceptable.

Little has changed about NYU’s plans, except in those areas where the university faced insurmountable opposition to their planned applications for public approvals. Their latest plans still include:

  • Adding up to 2.2 million sq. ft. of space to the blocks south of Washington Square Park — the equivalent of the Empire State Building

  • Adding a total of 3 million sq. ft. of space to the Village and surrounding area — doubling their rate of growth as compared to the last several decades, and adding the equivalent of seventeen more of their recently-completed 26-story mega-dorms on East 12th Street, the tallest building in the East Village

  • Changing the zoning for nine blocks near Washington Square Park from residential to commercial

  • Changing the zoning to lift open-space preservation requirements

  • Lifting long-standing urban renewal deed restrictions currently prohibiting new construction

  • Taking over public land currently used as recreational space

  • Reducing the amount of open space in one of the most park-starved areas of New York City

  • Shoehorning four gigantic buildings into the superblocks south of Washington Square Park, destroying the current balance between large buildings and surrounding open space

The few substantive changes NYU has made to their plans come as the result of public activism and opposition. They are:

However, NYU has now ADDED to their plan:

  • A 300 ft. tall hotel tower at the Houston Street end of their gigantic, nearly 1 million sq. ft. building proposed to replace the Coles Gym on Mercer Street (the building would also contain a 1,400 bed dorm — twice the size of NYU’s 700-bed, 26-story mega-dorm on East 12th Street)

  • A dorm reaching 15 stories in height on what is now the Morton Williams supermarket, at Bleecker Street and LaGuardia Place

The progress we have made has only come from pushing back against NYU’s plan, and letting the university, the Community Board, and public and elected officials know that these plans are completely unacceptable. Please continue the fight! Come to the presentation TONIGHT and sign up to speak in OPPOSITION to NYU’s proposals.

NYU’s plans can ONLY move ahead if they get special approvals from the City Council and the City Planning Commission. Please join us in demanding that any plans to overbuild and oversaturate the Village, East Village, or NoHo are REJECTED.

Next: 03/22/11
Previous: 03/16/11




Home : Preservation : NYU : Latest News : 03/21/11

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