NYU will file a mapping application with the city to designate two open spaces on the superblocks along LaGuardia Place and Mercer Street as parkland, the university announced last week.
According to Andrew Brent, deputy press secretary for the office of Mayor Bloomberg, if the areas are designated as parkland they will be transferred to the Department of Parks and Recreation from the Department of Transportation and mapped as a city park, requiring a change to be made to the city map.
Brent said parkland designation comes with certain protections. For instance, any non-park use would require permission from the state legislature.
Alicia Hurley, NYU vice president of government affairs and civic engagement, said the mapping application will not change the university's Uniform Land Use Review Procedure proposals, which it will soon file for approval to build on the superblock.
Hurley said nothing will be built on the green space mapped as parkland, but the university will seek permission to build below it — all part of NYU Plans 2031, the university's plan to expand the campus by six million square feet.
Because of the new parkland, plans for the Boomerang building on Mercer Street will be revised so that it is not built on the new green space.
"Our plan continues to evolve, and what we have determined with this announcement is that we can meet our own needs to grow and build facilities on the superblocks and provide this feature which gives the community what it has sought for many years," Hurley said.
But Andrew Berman, executive director of Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, does not think NYU's changes to the expansion plans will benefit the neighborhood.
"By giving technical ownership of some of the green strips to the Parks Department, responsibility for their upkeep goes to the city," Berman said. "But with the easements NYU is asking for, the university would get to dig through the parks, build underneath them, place construction equipment in them, [and] close them to the public whenever they wanted."
Sara Jones, chair of LaGuardia Corner Gardens, agreed. Though Jones said she was pleased to see NYU designate green spaces in their plans, she said building below them would turn the area to "a paved plaza with trees in boxes and a few containers of seasonal planters," in which the university will "add benches and ... call it a 'green' space."
"It is still amazing to many of us that a university that can set up campuses in Abu Dhabi, Shanghai and Paris can't come to terms with shifting some of its massive planned growth in New York just a mile to the south," Berman said.
