1. Attend Community Board 2's Working Group on Affordable Housing Development Meeting — Wednesday, Jan. 20, 6:30 p.m.
Scholastic Auditorium
557 Broadway (between Prince and Spring streets)
[map]
Arrive before 6:30 p.m. and WEAR GREEN. Download and print a Save Our Garden sign or, better yet, make one of your own. Garden volunteers will distribute Save Our Garden stickers.
2. Let us know if you plan to attend the hearing. [RSVP]
3. Share this message with your neighbors and friends, especially those who live in the neighborhood, via email or social media.
Many of you have asked what you can do to help save the Garden, and the answer is to show up in force at 6:30 p.m. on Jan. 20.
Additional information on the meeting follows.
Thank you,
Jeannine Kiely, President
Friends of Elizabeth Street Garden
Meeting Details
On Wednesday, New York City's Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) will present an "intended process and timeline for a Request for Proposals (RFP) for an affordable housing development at Elizabeth Street Garden." This RFP process would invite developers to submit proposals for a construction project that would destroy the Garden.
Q&A will immediately follow, first by Community Board 2 (CB 2) members and then by the public.
During Q&A, Garden supporters may ask how HPD’s plan to develop the Garden takes into account the:
Lack of green park space in CB 2;
Heavy use of the Garden by local residents including neighborhood seniors and children;
Needs of the hundreds of residents at 21 Spring St.;
Strong support from the local community for preserving the Garden as a park;
An alternative to build affordable housing at Hudson and Clarkson streets;
How development that includes ground-floor retail will impact local small businesses; and
Additional questions raised by HPD’s presentation.
Following Q&A, public comments will be welcome.
The Scholastic Auditorium seats 271 so there will be plenty of room for Garden supporters!RSVP here.
Why YOUR Attendance Makes a Difference
By attending the Jan. 20 meeting, you have the opportunity to show HPD, our elected officials and community leaders that our local neighborhood and business community are committed to saving Elizabeth Street Garden. RSVP here.
In September, Friends of Elizabeth Street Garden supporters wrote more than 1,500 letters in favor of saving the Garden and in opposition to a Lower Manhattan Development Corporation (LMDC) grant to HPD for an affordable housing project that would destroy the Garden.
Additionally, more than 250 supporters attended (or tried to attend) the LMDC hearing. Supporters filled the main hearing room, two overflow rooms and an outside terrace. Some were never even able to enter the building due to overwhelming attendance, but each and every one of us was counted!
To date, LMDC has not yet made a decision on grant recipients, but our overwhelming support showed that building on Elizabeth Street Garden does not demonstrate “a high level of community interest and support,” a primary criterion for the grant.
Garden Supporters: Elected Officials, Parks & Community Groups, and Community Board
Friends of Elizabeth Street Garden Inc. is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization incorporated in 2014 in New York with the mission to preserve Elizabeth Street Garden as a unique public green, open space and NYC Park. Contributions made for the charitable purposes of Friends of Elizabeth Street Garden are tax-deductible to the extent allowed by law.
A copy of the latest annual report may be obtained, upon request, from Friends of Elizabeth Street Garden, 235 Elizabeth St., Ste. 23, New York, NY 10012 or the New York State Attorney General’s Charities Bureau, 120 Broadway, Third Floor, New York, NY 10271.
