Commission signs off on Columbia’s eminent domain option despite vocal opposition. On November 26, 2007, the Planning Commission modified and approved both Columbia University’s campus expansion plan and Community Board 9’s 197-a plan. The two plans must now go before the City Council for their review.

Columbia’s plan called for rezoning 35 acres of Manhattanville, a section of West Harlem primarily zoned for manufacturing, to facilitate construction of a 17-acre academic mixed-use development roughly bounded by West 125th and West 135th Streets, from Broadway to 12th Avenue. The development would include research buildings, classrooms, university housing, as well as space for recreation facilities and ground-floor retail. A contiguous below-grade facility, or “bathtub,” would serve the new campus buildings with parking facilities, truck loading facilities, and two central energy plants. If Columbia is unable to purchase the property necessary for the bathtub, then, under the plan, the Empire State Development Corporation would acquire the property by eminent domain on Columbia’s behalf. 4 CityLand 89 (July 15, 2007). (read more…)