New public school will be among first built since 1970s without City funding; school construction program amended to increase flexibility. The City Council’s Land Use Committee voted yes on two applications that would enable private development of a 520-seat City middle school on the Upper East Side at no cost to the City.

In 1966, the City created the New York City Educational Construction Fund, a public benefit corporation, to allow the leasing of City property to private developers who would construct a new school and use the balance of the site for a private development. As part of this program, a separate zoning amendment passed allowing ECF projects to obtain a special permit to transfer unused floor area to the private development from the school lot and obtain height and setback waivers to afford needed flexibility. In the 1970s, ECF developed over 17,000 school seats at no capital cost to the City along with 4,500 residential units and 1.2 million sq.ft. of office space. (more…)