| Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation

Tell the City a 14th Street Tech Hub Without Neighborhood Protections is Unacceptable!

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Deputy Mayor Alicia Glen
Department of City Planning Chair Marisa Lago
Mayor Bill de Blasio

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Dear [Decision Maker],

The scheduling of the City Planning Commission's sole public hearing on the 14th Street Tech Hub ULURP with virtually no advance public notification is completely outrageous, and yet another example of how this administration has consistently tried to cut the public out of the public approval process. In spite of your best efforts to suppress public comment on this plan, the proposed 14th Street Tech Hub will exacerbate and accelerate inappropriate, out-of-place development in the area between Union Square and Astor Place. I demand that any Tech Hub be accompanied by appropriate protections for the adjacent impacted predominantly residential neighborhood.

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If such protections are not granted, we will only see more out-of-scale developments, which will be either luxury condos or large-scale office buildings or hotels.  Under GVSHP's rezoning plan for the University Place/Broadway corridors, new development would be limited in height and size to dimensions compatible with the neighborhood, and there would be incentives for the inclusion or preservation of a percentage of affordable housing, which the Mayor claims is his top priority.  It is unconscionable to retain the existing zoning, especially with the proposed Tech Hub, which will make this bad situation worse.

The 3rd and 4th Avenue corridors are also experiencing inappropriate commercial development which is replacing housing and limiting the opportunities to preserve or create new affordable housing. The "Tech Hub" plan will only make this worse. This can be solved by reducing the allowable size of commercial development in this district as GVSHP has proposed, thus making new development in this inclusionary zone more likely to be residential and more likely to preserve or create affordable housing.

These zoning protections, or landmark protections, MUST accompany any Tech Hub approvals.  If they do not, inappropriate and out of character development in this area will only accelerate, and I will urge the City Council to vote this project down.

The administration has consistently only shown an interest in serving the needs of the Mayor's campaign contributors, who are behind this project, rather than in the affected residents of the surrounding community, who have been denied a full opportunity to participate in this process.  The right thing to do is create a win-win where the Tech Hub is accompanied by appropriate protections for Greenwich Village and the East Village, as Community Boards 2 and 3, Borough President Brewer, and thousands of neighborhood residents have called for.

Sincerely,
[Your Name]
[Your Address]
[City, State ZIP]
[Your Email]