PRINCIPLES

Task Force Planning Principles
January 30, 2008

Full Text Announcement

Establish criteria for development within the existing NYU footprint in the University’s campus core and the surrounding neighborhoods that would prioritize

• Identifying opportunities to decentralize facilities and actively pursuing these opportunities;

• Contextual development that is sensitive to building heights, densities and materials;

• Reuse before new development; and

• Consider mixed use facilities that complement Manhattan's mixed neighborhoods, particularly in regard to ground floor uses.

Identify solutions to maximize utilization of existing assets by consulting with the community on:

• The types of facilities that can be decentralized from the Village campus core and surrounding neighborhoods and cultivating locations outside these areas;

• Preferences for appropriate places for vertical additions

• Encouraging programmatic and scheduling efficiencies: and

• Opening new and re-envisioning existing recreational spaces to better serve both the student population as well as the community at large.

Make thoughtful urban and architectural design a priority by:

• Respecting the limitations of the urban environment, including the impact on New York City’s infrastructure;

• Improving the quality of open spaces; and

• Actively soliciting, utilizing and implementing input from the community in the design process. 

Support community sustainability by:

• Preserving existing diverse social and economic character through the support of community efforts to sustain affordable housing and local retail;

• Exploring the utilization of ground floors of buildings for community-oriented uses such as local retail, gallery spaces for local artists, non-profit users and other providers of community services; and

• Generating a tenant relocation policy for legal, residential tenants, in the event that construction or conversion necessitates the relocation of tenants.

Respect the community's existing quality of life including but not limited to:

• Taking measures to mitigate effects of construction such as: noise, dust, work hours; sound mitigation for mechanical equipment; and construction staging;   

• Reaching out early and often for community consultation related to major construction;

• Creating a website for ongoing constructions; and

• Committing to a community-oriented public process for reviewing NYU's proposed projects and developments.

Anticipated Time Line

 

The following are Working Principles initiated in October 2006 as a framework for the Task Force itself.

• The Task Force will be established by and led by those representing the residential stakeholders.

• The Task Force will concentrate its efforts on problems related to areas where NYU currently has the greatest physical presence and in areas where it is immediately expanding. This will include the eastern portions of Community Boards 2 and western portion of Community Board 3.

 
• The Task Force is not expected to be a voting body, but an advisory one where decisions will be made on the basis of consensus.

• The Task Force can have subcommittees to address individual locations or topics as needed.

• If specific issues come up in areas not represented or underrepresented, additional stakeholders will be invited to participate including but not limited to block associations, elected representatives, BIDs, and community based organizations.

• The Task Force will either have public meetings on a regular basis or create a method for public reporting and receiving public feedback.