I strongly urge you not to approve or support New York University’s massive planned 20-year expansion plan in the Village. The plan is not only wrong for the Village and surrounding neighborhoods, which would be severely impacted, but for New York City and even NYU itself.
The plan requires undoing long-standing neighborhood zoning and open space protections and urban renewal deed restrictions, as well as selling off public land used as parks. NYU would shoehorn 2.5 million square feet of space – the equivalent of the Empire State Building! – into an area south of Washington Square Park which simply cannot absorb it. It would drastically tip the balance of this and surrounding neighborhoods. At best, in a mere 20 years, NYU would be back, asking for more zoning changes and more public land to expand further.
There are much better alternatives. In the Financial District such development would be contextual and welcome, adding to the diversity of that growing neighborhood. It would be just a few minutes by subway and walking distance from NYU’s main hubs in Washington Square and Downtown Brooklyn. It would allow NYU vastly greater possibilities for future growth, and in a way that would help the city, not strangle and overwhelm some of its most historic and delicately-balanced neighborhoods.
Please vote AGAINST the approvals for NYU’s massive 20 year expansion plan!
Why is this important?
New York University wants to build an additional 2.5 million square feet of space – the equivalent of the Empire State Building! – in the blocks south of Washington Square Park. They need the City to overturn zoning protections, open space requirements, and urban renewal agreements, and give away public land used as parks, in order to do so. There are better alternatives for NYC, like the Financial District, which is accessible to other NYU hubs and where such growth would be contextual and welcome.
