From LaGuardia Corner Gardens:
COME CELEBRATE!
VICTORY PARTY FOR PARKS
Sunday, March 15th 1pm (date changed from March 9).
On January 7th, 2014, Judge Donna Mills made a crucial ruling that protects parkland in Greenwich Village. This ruling prevented the NYU Expansion Plan (The Sexton Plan) from encroaching on NYC Parkland.
JOIN US ON MARCH 15th TO CELEBRATE AND HELP MAKE THIS PARKLAND DECISION PERMANENT BY ASKING CITY HALL NOT TO APPEAL THIS RULING.
This ruling is a great victory for Parks’ lovers who believe that our public open spaces are precious assets and that they can’t be given away for development without due process. Since the victory, this case has been cited by other groups fighting similar battles –-- Willets Point in Queens, the Lower East Side/Chinatown, Flushing Meadow Park in Queens.
Judge Mills ruled that taking three of four parkland parcels for NYU development – Mercer Playground, LaGuardia Corner Gardens (a community garden), and LaGuardia Park - was illegal and that the action violated the Public Trust Doctrine. Former Parks Commissioner Henry Stern testified on behalf of the community groups that filed the suit* saying that over decades, NYU obstructed the Parks Department’s efforts to map these sites as parkland.
If we stand united across all five boroughs, City Hall will have to hear us and chart a new course that will protect our public spaces City-wide, for good.
The party will serve as a jumping off point for “Save Our Parks and Open Spaces” Week (March 15 – 22). We will ask everyone to call or email City Hall to support our open spaces.
In 2012, NY State Assemblymember Deborah Glick, NYU Faculty Against the Sexton Plan, Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, Historic Districts Council, Washington Square Village Tenants’ Association, East Village Community Coalition, Friends of Petrosino Square, LaGuardia Corner Gardens, Inc., Lower Manhattan Neighbors Organization, SoHo Alliance, Bowery Alliance of Neighbors, NoHo Neighborhood Association, and 11 individuals, filed an Article 78 lawsuit against several City and State officers and agencies for their unlawful approval of NYU’s 2031 expansion plan, known as the Sexton Plan. This suit objected to the overexpansion of Greenwich Village by the 2 million square foot, $6 billion dollar NYU expansion plan, and the alienation of parkland.
