New York City community remains skeptical about Cooper Union's development plans (06/09/02)

New York City community remains skeptical about Cooper Union's development plans

by Andrew Nynka

NEW YORK - With the clock officially running on Cooper Union's large scale development plan - a plan which Ukrainian East Village residents argue could adversely and permanently affect their nearly 150 year-old community - local government review boards have emphatically voted against approving the school's intended expansion. Furthermore, the school's hiring of a new architectural firm has sparked the call of residents and elected government officials to have the clock on the one-year process stopped.

Residents argue that Cooper Union's refusal to stop the clock, as well as the school's obstinacy in past attempts at compromise, all confirm the school's intention to forcibly push its plan to certification.

Regarding the April 18 decision of school officials to employ the architectural firm of Ehrenkrantz Eckstut & Kuhn, Claire McCarthy, director of public affairs at The Cooper Union said, "we felt that we wanted a firm that would work with the community - possibly changing the look of buildings in order to make them more sympathetic to the community."

However, the decision to hire the new firm has left residents once again questioning the school's motives. Residents see the move as another false pledge in a series of promises from a school that continues to preach its intention to work with the community while it seeks to develop and finance their 143-year-old college.

Andrij Lastowecky, a 50-year resident of the Ukrainian East Village and official representative of the Ukrainian community in that neighborhood, during a telephone interview on June 5 called the hiring of the architectural firm "cosmetic" and a "sham." He added that Cooper Union's most recent appeal to the community is an attempt to win the heart of Manhattan Borough President C. Virginia Fields.

"I'm very skeptical," Mr. Lastowecky added. "I see it as a political ploy and that's it."

Anna Sawaryn, the head of the Coalition to Save the East Village, added: "What [the new architects] have come up with is more interesting than what we've had before, however, the bulk [in the development plan] is still there and the current plans still overshadow the [Ukrainian] church." She added that in her opinion Ehrenkrantz Eckstut & Kuhn have "not been sensitive to the Hewitt site and the needs of the Ukrainian community."

Because Cooper Union's General Large Scale Development Plan (GLSDP) includes city map and zoning changes, its application must pass through numerous local government boards and commissions, including the Manhattan borough president's office, before gaining approval by either the New York City Council or the Mayor. The first groups to appraise the plan are local community boards which, in this case, all voted to reject the school's proposal as it stands.

Cooper Union has drawn support from its alumni and students, who argue that the school still provides value not only to the students it educates but the surrounding community as well. Karina Tipton, a graduate of Cooper's School of Engineering and currently an environmental engineer with TAMS Consultants and associate professor at Cooper Union's department of humanities and social sciences, called it a fight to preserve an institution.

"We are here to ask you to help us do the right thing and help save the school," Ms. Tipton said during the Community Board 3 meeting. "It's as simple as that."

However, the May 28 board meeting saw 36 of 38 Community Board 3 members turn down Cooper Union's plan. The remaining two members were not present during the vote.

Community board review is the first step in the process of evaluating a city zoning or map change proposal. However, because the school's development plan affects more than one community board a joint task force of Community Boards 2 and 3 recently met to assess Cooper Union's application.

"We once again reiterate our opposition to the current Cooper GLSDP, which as currently proposed is a scheme more suited to midtown development and totally inharmonious to the Village and Lower East Side neighborhoods," said a statement by the joint task force.

The February 4 statement went on to say, "Further, the Hewitt site abuts an important East Village institution - St. George's Ukrainian Catholic Church, with its beautiful stained-glass windows, mosaics and Byzantine dome. Any proposed construction must be cognizant of and sensitive to the historic and cultural significance of this area."

"The community is unanimously in favor of the continued existence and success of Cooper Union as an educational institution," the statement read. "However, it is unalterably opposed to this excessive bulk called for in the current GLSDP proposal. We recognize that the basic premise of zoning law is to rezone property due to changing land use and conditions for redevelopment purposes. Enhancing a private developer's bottom line is not part of this equation. We feel it would well serve all concerned if the City Planning Commission would convey these principles of zoning to Cooper, which has failed to recognize them in our months of intense dialogue and review."

The task force statement was also unanimously approved by Community Board 2 on February 21.

The time-clock on the review process takes one year and begins with the Department of City Planning receipt and certification of an application as complete. In this case that came on April 1.

However, two months into the formal review process, elected officials have called for a stoppage. In a May 24 letter addressed to Dr. George Campbell, president of The Cooper Union, New York State Sen. Martin Connor expressed his concern saying: "I am joining Council Member Margarita Lopez in requesting that you stop the clock on the ULURP [Uniform Land Use Review Procedure] process and give your new architects the opportunity to revisit this plan in an effort to again make it more acceptable to the community."

Cooper's Vice-President for Business Affairs and Treasurer Robert Hawks responded to Councilwoman Lopez's May 9 letter by stating that "City planning has informed us that there is no mechanism for stopping the clock. Instead, we would have to withdraw the ULURP application ... and begin the entire process all over again."

"The Cooper Union and EEK [Ehrenkrantz Eckstut & Kuhn] are fully engaged in the process of working with the community, and we believe this process can be productively continued beyond the May 28 community board vote through the City Planning Commission review period. This should provide sufficient time to explore thoroughly the issues and attempt to reach consensus on many of them."

"It also provides a defined time frame," the May 23 letter continued, "which will assist everyone in focusing on the key issues, which have been under discussion for nearly two years."

Councilwoman Lopez could not be reached for her reaction to Mr. Hawks' letter.

For the next 30 days the application sits squarely in the hands of Manhattan Borough President Fields before moving to New York's City Planning Commission.

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