Nadler, Other Officials Oppose Fordham University's Expansion Plan

Rep. Jerrold Nadler and some other elected officials are opposing a plan by Fordham University to triple the size of its Lincoln Center campus.

The city planning department has scheduled an initial public meeting about the plan for today. In a letter sent to Fordham on Friday, obtained by The New York Sun, Mr. Nadler, Senator Thomas Duane, Assemblyman Richard Gottfried, and Assemblywoman Linda Rosenthal offered sharp criticism of the design of the plan, among other issues, writing that the proposal will "make a bad site plan worse."

While those officials do not have a vote in the approval process, their influence could push Fordham to scale back or alter its plans, which include selling land for the creation of two residential skyscrapers.

Like many other colleges and universities in the city, Fordham is feeling pressure to expand its space for academic programs and student housing. Unlike New York University and Columbia University, which are both planning large expansions outside of their existing campuses, Fordham is seeking to stay within its existing campus footprint, a two block "superblock" bounded by Columbus and Amsterdam avenues and 60th and 62nd streets on Manhattan's West Side.

The bulk of the proposed expansion has drawn strong criticism from some surrounding residents, who warn the campus will be transformed into a fortress-like complex that is unwelcoming to both residents and passersby. The elected officials are pushing Fordham to redistribute some of the bulk inward, making the towers on the exterior less tall and imposing. The letter takes particular issue with the two 600-foot residential towers planned for the Amsterdam side of the site, which face a public housing project.

"Future modifications of the plan must reduce the height of the Amsterdam Avenue towers," the officials wrote.

Fordham, which plans to add more than 2 million square feet of building space to the area over the next 25 years, said in response to the letter that it will continue to work with the elected officials in the area to create a workable plan. "We are confident that we will develop a plan that satisfies the needs of the University and the community," a university spokesman, Robert Howe, said in a statement.

The plan must be approved by both the City Council and the City Planning Commission, and Fordham has said it intends to start construction shortly thereafter. Today's public meeting on the project is scheduled for the Department of City Planning's offices at 22 Reade Street in Manhattan, from 2 p.m. to 8:45 p.m. with a break between 5 and 6 p.m.