NYU superblock development as originally proposed. Image credit: NYU.

Court found no implied dedication of target parcels as parkland.  In 2012, the City Council approved a plan by New York University to develop two “superblocks” bounded by West 3rd Street, Houston Street, Mercer Street, and LaGuardia Place in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan as part of an expansion plan for the campus.  Assemblymember Deborah Glick, joined by the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, the Historic Districts Council, and other local community groups challenged the approval in court arguing the Council’s approval improperly granted four community parks to NYU for the expansion in violation of the public trust doctrine.

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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…)

Two-phased proposal includes four new buildings, expansion of open space, and below-grade academic and parking facilities. On January 3, 2012, the City Planning Commission certified New York University’s proposal to expand its academic core in Greenwich Village. The plan would impact two superblocks bounded by West 3rd Street, Houston Street, LaGuardia Place and Mercer Street near NYU’s main campus. The project would include four new academic and residential buildings, create 3.8 acres of public open space, and provide below-grade academic space and a parking garage. To the north, NYU requested that the City apply a C1-5 commercial overlay to six blocks generally bounded by Mercer Street, Washington Square Park East and University Place, East 8th Street, and West 4th Street to expand retail opportunities in buildings primarily owned by NYU.  (read more…)