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June 1, 2006
Columbia’s Planned Expansion to Manhattanville Draws Fire From Small Businesses, Community Board
WEST HARLEM AMBITION COULD USURP LOCAL STORES AND LIMIT RESIDENTIAL DEVELOPMENT
NY Sun
By Julia Vitullo-Martin
On eminent domain and the struggle of another NYC neighborhood to determine its own destiny:
Columbia University’s planned expansion northward from its Morningside Heights campus into West Harlem, which it calls Manhattanville, is now quietly being reviewed by the Department of City Planning. But the negotiations will not stay quiet for long. Columbia’s expansion is not only opposed by several small business owners in the area who have refused to sell the university their property, it is also at odds with the local community board’s official plan.And while many issues are ostensibly technical — current zoning disallows most of what Columbia hopes to do — the substantive disagreements are fundamental.
Columbia wants a virtual blank slate on which to build Renzo Piano’s ambitious scheme.The community board basically wants an improved and denser version of what it has now — a mix of industry, warehouses, a few restaurants and bakeries, and several housing projects. “Columbia has an all-encompassing plan that depends on the complete removal of buildings, people, places, and things between 125th and 133rd Street and from Broadway to 12th Avenue,” a local resident and member of the Coalition to Preserve Community’s steering committee,Tom DeMott, said.
Posted by lumi at June 1, 2006 8:44 AM