This article was originally published on 7/20/2012 (see below for update).

NYU agreed to limit heights of the Zipper Building and Boomerang Buildings, and to provide community center if no public school is built on site. On July 17, 2012, the City Council’s Land Use Committee modified New York University’s campus expansion proposal in Greenwich Village. Opposition to the project, which had already been reduced by the City Planning Commission, remained when it reached the City Council’s Zoning & Franchises Subcommittee public hearing on June 29, 2012. (See CityLand’s coverage of NYU’s original proposal, and the Planning Commission’s modifications here.)

More than 200 people signed up to testify in front of the Subcommittee, with opponents reiterating their concerns about the project’s impact in the neighborhood. Local Council Member Margaret Chin said she could not support the current proposal, and urged NYU to work with her to further reduce the proposal’s density. Council Member Chin was confident that it was possible to “strike a balance that upholds the integrity” of Greenwich Village and meets NYU’s academic needs. Council Member Jessica S. Lappin agreed with Chin, finding the current proposal “too dense, too big, too tall…too much.” Lappin acknowledged NYU’s claims that it needed to expand in order to accommodate its current student population, but stated that NYU had made (read more…)