City council members are calling for a cap on dormitory sizes, which, if passed, could limit NYU's expansion.
James Gennaro, a member of the New York City Council, held a press conference last Thursday announcing his intention to introduce a bill to prevent universities from building dormitory buildings that are larger than normal building limits.
Currently, college dormitories are classified as community facilities and are therefore given more leeway by the city when building, often to twice the otherwise acceptable size. Those who oppose this, however, argue that these structures are inaccessible to community residents and therefore should not retain that status.
A spokesperson for Gennaro (D-Fresh Meadows) confirmed that the resolution "will be introduced but it has not yet, since we only suggested the idea earlier this week," and that the bill would most likely be introduced "at the next opportunity that we have."
Another council member, Tony Avella, coincidentally called for similar legislation to be introduced to the council in a press conference he held last week. His plan would exclude dormitory buildings, as well as faculty housing, from the "community facilities" label. Avella (D-Bayside) has also not yet introduced any legislation to the council.
When asked how this could affect current and future NYU expansion plans, Alicia Hurley, associate vice president of government and community affairs, said that "the actual legislation has not been introduced so it's hard for us to comment."
"I'm not sure what they're doing," she said.
Andrew Berman, director of the Greenwich Village Historical Preservation Society, said the legislation would be "a change that we've been calling for for over five years now." Berman said the GVHPS issued a report in 2002 that urged the city to make reforms to address university development.
"We are firmly on record in support of this," Berman said.
The reasons for the bill are multifaceted. A spokesperson for Gennaro said that "in light of the recent situation in Jamaica Estates," where St. John's University is building a six-story, 485-bed dormitory in a residential area of mostly single-family homes, "it has come to my attention that dorms do not enhance and serve the community in the way that other community buildings do ... no one else in the community can access the building."
Berman said that "under the current situation with zoning, dormitories can end up being built to two times or more the size of what any other type of development in a neighborhood is allowed to be built to."
Amy Spiro is a contributing writer. E-mail her at news@nyunews.com.
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