Negotiations To Begin Over Columbia’s Expansion

Columbia University and the West Harlem Local Development Corporation are scheduled to begin negotiations this morning regarding the drafting of a community benefits agreement for Columbia’s proposed Manhattanville expansion.Members of the LCD said they hope the negotiations — which are expected to take months — will produce a community benefits agreement before the Universal Land Use Review Process is complete and Columbia’s development plan is up for a City Council vote. It is still unclear what would ultimately be included in such an agreement.The 14-member local development corporation was formed this summer to represent community interests. It is using Community Board no. 9’s 197-A plan, an alternate plan to Columbia’s, as guidance in the negotiations. The 197-A plan focuses in part on rezoning to create more affordable housing, protect local businesses, and create jobs in the area. Columbia’s proposal, which covers 17 acres spanning West 125th and 133rd streets, includes academic buildings, laboratory space, university housing, retail, and a public magnet high school.“To isolate any individual issue would be inappropriate at this time,” the president of the West Harlem LDC and a member of CB9, Pat Jones, said.Another member of the LDC, Nick Sprayregen, the owner and president of Tuck-it-Away Self-Storage who, after Columbia, owns the second largest amount of property in the proposed expansion zone, said he was most concerned about the creation of affordable housing and the possibility of the state government using eminent domain to allow Columbia to acquire the property it does not already own in the proposed expansion zone.Mr. Sprayregen was one of the LDC members who voted against an LDC decision to allow negotiations to go forward without demanding that Columbia take the possibility of eminent domain off the table, and said he may resign if that does not change. “As far as I am concerned, the first thing that should be a commitment from Columbia should be no forced displacements,” he said. “It’s conceivable that out of principle, at some point, I might resign from the board.”According to a spokeswoman for Columbia, La-Verna Fountain, Columbia will not preclude the possibility of eminent domain use, but is open to any other negotiations. “Our goal really is to work with them, so we’re taking our cues from them. We are coming in perfectly open and willing to move along as they would like us to.”Ms. Jones said she did not expect the LDC to ask for the negotiations to center on eminent domain. “Land-use issues are really not the purview of the LDC, but really are the purview of the ULURP process. I can’t predict the future,” she said.Council Member Robert Jackson, who represents the area and had pushed for the formation of an LDC, said he was happy negotiations were beginning. “Hopefully, this will wind up in a community benefits agreement where the community will be pleased and Columbia will be pleased,” he said. “That may take three months, six months — it might be a year. I’m hoping for sooner rather than later.”

Negotiations To Begin Over Columbia’s Expansion

Negotiations To Begin Over Columbia’s Expansion

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