Daily News

EXPANDING DEBATE AT COLUMBIA

BY FRANK LOMBARDI DAILY NEWS CITY HALL BUREAU

DESPITE YEARS of preparatory skirmishing, the battle over Columbia
University's proposed 17-acre expansion into West Harlem is just getting
started.

Last week, a committee of Harlem's Community Board 9 voted 17 to 1 to reject
the university's $7 billion plan. That vote came at a raucous session that saw
former Mayor David Dinkins - who teaches at Columbia and supports the expansion
- get booed on his Harlem turf.

On Monday, the full community board added its rejection by a 31-to-2 vote.
The board demanded a series of major concessions, including abandoning any use
of eminent-domain condemnation of private properties.

Though only advisory, the board's vote kick-started the prolonged zoning and
land-use process known as ULURP (Uniform Land Use Review Procedure).

Still more fireworks could erupt on Sept. 19, when Manhattan Borough
President Scott Stringer will hold a public hearing to help shape his - also
nonbinding - recommendation on the expansion plan.

Under ULURP, the controlling decisions are made by the city's Planning
Commission, which has set an Oct. 3 public hearing on the expansion plan, and
the City Council, which ultimately has the final say in ULURP matters.

"Now it's time for serious negotiations to get started," said Councilman
Robert Jackson (D-Manhattan), who represents the affected district and who sits
on the Council's key zoning panels.

Jackson also is one of nine city, state and federal elected officials who
represent the Harlem area and sit on the 21-member West Harlem Local Development
Corporation that was created to try to hammer out an agreement with Columbia
University.

Community groups that oppose the expansion have complained that Harlem's
elected officials - with the exception of state Sen. Bill Perkins - have given
tacit support to Columbia's plan.

"We do feel like its David and Goliath," said Tom DeMott, a retired postal
worker and a member of the Coalition to Preserve Community , formed four years
ago in reaction to Columbia's expansion efforts.

DeMott, who also is a member of the West Harlem Local Development Corp., said
there's a "phenomenal" level of community people working together to stop what
he called "the bulldozing" of an entire community.

La-Verna Fountain, spokeswoman for Columbia, said the university is prepared
to negotiate on issues of concern to Community Board 9.

"So we look forward to working with the community on the next steps in this
very public and transparent land-use review process," she said.