The Quadrangle

Issue date: 4/6/05 Section: News

The Broadway parking lot may soon be undergoing major renovations

Manhattan College will be experiencing another change in the look of campus soon, as the final steps towards groundbreaking on the new Broadway parking lot come to completion.

In an article written by John Bekisz, Jr., the Manhattan College Quadrangle covered a story regarding the construction of a new parking lot where both Paulian Hall and the Broadway parking lot now reside. Mr. John Daly, Vice President of Finance, stated that the initial stages of hearings, local governmental application, and other early facets of construction have passed, and Manhattan College is braced to start construction on the 15-year old project by the end of 2005.

The final plans up for review by the New York City Department of City Planning call for a seven-floor structure housing a Pathmark grocery store and six floors of parking. In addition to the supermarket and the parking garage, a pedestrian walkway is in the works, planned to span from Hayden Hall, over Manhattan College Parkway, and on to the top level of the facility.

Mr. Daly continued, stating that if the Department of City Planning agrees on the design on schedule, construction should begin by the end of the fourth quarter of the 2005 fiscal year and finish by the fourth quarter the 2006 fiscal year. With a 24-Hour Pathmark and five floors of parking dedicated to Manhattan College students, the new structure is set to provide approximately 750 spaces for Manhattan students, alongside a much needed grocery store a mere walk from campus.

Most surprisingly of all, the 20 million dollar project is expected to come to little cost to the school. With construction financed through loans, the rent Pathmark will pay to the school will eventually recoup all expenses incurred throughout the construction. Through this plan, the construction will cost students very little in a tuition increase, if any increase at all. The new parking lot will also open its doors to the public during the school's off season in the summer, providing additional parking during Riverdale's most crowded season. At a minimal price to the public, the lot will stay open at no cost to students, as those who rent the spaces during the off-season will pay just enough to keep the garage in working condition.

Manhattan College now faces one of their last hurdles in having the plan approved: the Uniform Land Use Review Procedure instituted by the City Planning Commission in 1976. Before the ULURP procedure was enacted, City officials only reviewed applications that regarded zoning regulation, urban renewal, and housing. During Robert F. Wagner's term as Manhattan Borough President, Community Planning Councils were created to give community members an outlet for discussing changes to their communities. These changes gave both citizens and local government the ability to intervene in construction projects happening in their neighborhood.

Through the ULURP procedure, New York City enacted a "standard whereby applications affecting the land use of the city would be publicly reviewed." Through ULURP, all changes to the New York City map, new construction of roads, and changes in zoning districts are all subject to review by the City government. The process can be lengthy, as it goes through six steps, including three involving the approval of neighborhood residents, local government, and citywide government.

In the design for the new parking lot, a new median, stoplight, and entrance will be constructed along Broadway, requiring the intervention of ULURP to the construction process. This review is one of the last major hurdles to groundbreaking on the project, and is expected to reach completion by the end of the year.

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