The Eminent Domain

Sure enough, just over half of the Columbia community benefits commitment, $76 million, will be devoted to “a flexible benefit fund to be overseen by a committee of community and Columbia representatives,” the New York Times reports this morning — a committee presumably not including tenant representatives Tom DeMott and Luisa Henriquez, storage company owner Nick Sprayregen, or Rev. Earl Kooperkamp of St. Mary’s Episcopal Church, all of whom have recently resigned from the body negotiating with Columbia for community benefits, the West Harlem LDC.

Think about that $76 million for a moment. That’s equivalent to Yankee Stadium’s $800,000 annual “community” pledge to Bronx elected officials — for 95 years. We’ll have to wait to see the language of the agreement, of course, but unless the promised body overseeing this thing is a paragon of democracy, what we have here is essentially a long-term purchase of elected officials’ compliance, long after Borough President Scott Stringer, Councilmember Robert Jackson and other parties to this deal will have been term-limited out of office.

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How Green Is My City? New York Today and 2030. Panel discussion reflecting on the legacy of earlier generations of environmental planning and how they can inform future efforts, with Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Daniel Doctoroff, Adrian Benepe, Douglas Blonsky, Jonathan Rose, moderated by Elizabeth Barlow Rogers. New-York Historical Society, Central Park West at 77th Street, 212-485-9205.

Columbia and the West Harlem Local Development Corporation have reportedly reached an agreement on $150 million in unspecified community benefits.

We’ll get you the details as soon as we have them. But based on earlier reports, we can be fairly sure of two things: the deal will include substantial funds for housing, and it represents the interests of the elected officials whose staffs negotiated it — not the community in whose name it was executed. As a certain resident of Yankee Stadium used to say, “It’s deja vu all over again.”

For further enlightenment, check out Good Jobs New York’s excellent report on Yankee Stadium, which describes how the Yankees hired longtime political operative Stanley Schlein to broker a “community benefits agreement” with the City Council — giving Bronx members $800,000 a year in cash to spend — in order to win the Council’s support for the stadium plan. The community had nothing to do with it.

Columbia can’t do any worse. Or can it?

Earlier today, the City Council’s subcommittees on Zoning & Franchises and Planning, Dispositions & Concessions approved Columbia’s rezoning plan for Manhattanville as well as Community Board 9’s own plan for the surrounding area. The plans both now go to the full Council for a vote, with no further public hearing. The Columbia Spectator has the story.

Crains reports that two more members of the West Harlem Local Development Corporation have resigned as negotiations with Columbia for community benefits — including a housing fund — hurtle forward. As we’ve noted, three other members who resigned last week reported that community representatives had been excluded from negotiations with the university.

Things are heating up in West Harlem. According to the Campaign for Community Based Planning, City Council may be voting as early as tomorrow on Columbia’s expansion plan — even though they have until January to do so. The Columbia Spectator reports that rumors have been circulating to this effect since yesterday, and traces them back to an email sent out by The Coalition to Preserve Community encouraging Manhattanville residents to protest the early decision, which they believe will take place at 1:30 p.m. tomorrow.

In other news, we’re still waiting to hear about the Sprayregen Swap, back on the table since Thursday…

We’re going to be debating a lot of issues here at The Eminent Domain, but one principle will remain sacrosanct: New Yorkers have to have meaningful opportunities to participate in city planning and development. Our neighborhoods are not a chessboard for real estate investors, okay? Thought you’d agree.

Three years ago the Municipal Art Society launched the Campaign for Community-Based Planning to bring together organizations, from community boards to environmental justice groups, working to increase public participation in city planning through a five-point platform. (Point #2, just to give you an idea: “The City must view communities as partners, not adversaries.”)

Now the Campaign has launched a blog, including a calendar of important public hearings. Happy birthday to you too.

With so much cooking in downtown Brooklyn it’s hard to know where to begin, but the current tug-of-war over the future of Admirals’ Row speaks volumes about the cognitive dissonance Brooklyn is going through, painfully.

Here’s what’s going on, as explained well in the Daily News: The Navy Yard Development Corporation is looking to develop a supermarket on the site of 10 decrepit mansions that once housed top officers of the Navy. Historic preservationists have sought, without success, to get the structures landmarked. Now the National Guard, which owns the buildings, has issued a report concluding that the buildings could be restored — at a price of nearly $20 million in all.

Now, we’re all familiar with the usual development scenario in New York City, as we’ll amply cover it on this site: Big developer proposes a project, government greases the way with rezoning and subsidies, neighbors rally to block the project. At first blush that looks like what we’ve got here. But. Brooklynites are struggling right now with the deep contradictions of the current path of downtown development, and it’ll make the Admiral’s Row saga a fascinating one to follow.

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While Kingsbridge waits for the big news — which developer will EDC select to revive the Kingsbridge Armory? — let’s catch up on a few recent stories of interest:

A Norwood News editorial reflects on a survey from Councilmember Oliver Koppell finding ample evidence of school overcrowding in District 10, contrary to the Department of Education’s conclusion that no new schools are needed at the armory site.

Also on the schools front, City Limits told the inside story of how schools disappeared from armory plans.

And where has the New York Times been on this important story? The armory redevelopment, transforming a site about half the size of Columbia University’s Manhattanville beachhead, got 280 measly words in the City Section (a sequel to a brief story last year).

West Harlem’s community plan might have a fighting chance after all.

You’ll recall that in late November, the City Planning Commission approved the Community Board 9’s 197-a plan for the area, but without, well, the heart of it all: recommendations for how to incorporate Columbia University’s planned expansion into the fabric of Manhattanville’s existing buildings, preserving small businesses and the industrial activity amid a rising new campus.

At a Wednesday morning hearing, the Council’s subcommittees on Zoning and Franchises and Planning, Dispositions & Concessions came face to face with two starkly different visions for Manhattanville: Community Board 9’s 197-a plan and Columbia University’s own proposal to build a self-contained academic campus on 17 square blocks.

To judge from the comments of the councilmembers, they were paying careful attention to some of the community board’s key recommendations rejected by City Planning — above all, its call to prohibit the use of eminent domain to acquire property for development in Manhattanvillle. Read the rest of this entry

Fresh off its 6-to-1 anointment by the City Planning Commission, Columbia University’s application to rezone 17 square blocks of Manhattanville now goes to a hearing on Wednesday morning with a joint pairing of City Council subcommittees, Zoning & Franchises (chaired by Tony Avella) and Planning, Dispositions and Concessions (headed by Dan Garodnick).

Councilmember Robert Jackson, who sits on Avella’s committee, can expect to take some heat at the hearing from constituents over his role in the West Harlem Local Development Corporation, which Community Board 9 created as a vehicle for residents and business owners to negotiate a community benefits agreement but which Jackson, Rep. Charles Rangel and other West Harlem elected officials insisted on having their own representatives join.

Last week, three LDC members resigned, complaining that they were effectively locked out of community benefits negotiations controlled by the elected officials’ representatives.

Jackson was a key supporter of Borough President Scott Stringer’s agreement with Columbia, which paved the way for the university expansion’s approval and doomed prospects for Community Board 9’s own plan for the zone.