Community-Benefits Agreement Talks on Horizon

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Community-Benefits Agreement Talks on Horizon
Local Development Corporation, Which Will Negotiate With Columbia on Expansion, Formed
By Erin Durkin
Issue date: 6/20/06 Section: News

Representatives of the Manhattanville community have formed a local development corporation which will negotiate toward a community-benefits agreement with Columbiastarting this summer.

The local development corporation was formally established in March, but an announcement Monday by Community Board 9, Councilman Robert Jackson ( D-Washington Heights ), and the New York City Economic Development Corporation indicated readiness to begin the long-delayed negotiations originally slated for last January.

At the request of Jackson and CB9, Columbia has waited for the LDC to be ready before entering discussions about community benefits. A community-benefits agreement is a pact in which a developer promises to provide certain perks to people who live and work in the neighborhood where it plans to build. Each one has different components, but agreements reached in other parts of the city have generally included promises to build affordable housing and to set aside jobs for local residents.

Columbia 's plan to build a new campus on 17 acres in the Manhattanville section of West Harlem has generated significant community opposition, and the University hopes that a benefits package will mollify some critics. To go forward with its expansion, Columbia needs approval from the city to rezone the area, which would be attained through the Uniform Land Use Review Procedure.

CB9 has an advisory vote in this process, but Chair Jordi Reyes-Montblanc said, "There is no possibility of a quid pro quo, that we'll pass the ULURP if they do this or that."

Reyes-Montblanc said that community-benefits agreement negotiations can begin in the coming weeks because of a series of meetings held between technical advisers to Columbia and CB9, which compared the University's development plan with the board's 197-a plan. "Columbia finally came to the table, and we sat down and had a number of technical reviews. And we feel that we know exactly where we agree and where we disagree," he said. "Now there is something to talk about."

Though negotiating sessions have not yet been scheduled, Reyes-Montblanc said that "we expect that once things start to happen they will happen pretty fast."

Six of the 13 seats on the local development corporation, which is capable of entering into a legally binding agreement, have been filled so far. Its current members are Reyes-Montblanc; Patricia Jones, chair of CB9's 197-a committee; Maritta Dunn of Manhattanville Houses Residents Association; Julio Batista of the Housing Development Fund Co-op Council; Sarah Martin, the president of Grant Houses Residents Association; and Debbie Brown of Manhattanville Area Consortium of Businesses.

Nine seats must be filled to achieve a quorum before negotiations begin. The local development corporation is currently looking at representatives of commercial and residential property owners, tenant associations, cultural and arts associations, and faith-based organizations to fill the remaining seats. It is also assisted by John Bickerman, a conflict resolution expert appointed by the city.

As to what an ideal agreement would look like, Reyes-Montblanc said, "I haven't the foggiest idea." "This will be dictated by the circumstances, discussions with Columbia, what they want, what the community wants, who will blink first," he said.

Jackson said in a statement: "Manhattanville can be a model for how to balance the interests of our City's communities and its large institutions. By negotiating in good faith, I am confident that we can craft an agreement that meets the community's needs while ensuring Columbia's long-term viability. I am optimistic that we will be able to resolve the outstanding issues."

Martin Smith, Jackson 's director of constituent services, said that while the councilman played an integral role in establishing the local development corporation, he would let it chart its own course. "Robert will support whatever it is [they agree to]," he said. University President Lee Bollinger said in a statement: "We welcome the formation of the Local Development Corporation, acknowledge the great amount of work which has already been done, and look forward to completing our work together to achieve a shared vision of the future for the Manhattanville area."

Martin, the Grant Houses president, said that her first priority in an agreement would be "letting people stay where they are if they want to." As it currently stands, the expansion plan will displace many residential tenants and businesses from the expansion zone.

In addition, she said, "We're trying to see how we can get them to do something about the lab," saying she would look for a commitment to build only biosafety Level 1 and 2 labs. "Further down the road at the end of the day, there'll be talk about jobs," she said.

While players in the upcoming negotiations expressed optimism, Tom Demott of the Coalition to Preserve Community, which has opposed the expansion, cautioned that, "People shouldn't delude themselves into thinking that these vast differences don't exist and that there's some magical ... agreement that can be reached that can erase that."