Haven Green, a long-stalled affordable housing project for Manhattan’s Little Italy, is finally slated to kick off later this summer, after a court decision this week cleared the way for the new complex despite opposition from neighbors.
The New York Court of Appeals ruled in favor of the Adams administration in a dispute over Elizabeth Street Garden, a rare sculpture garden location in the otherwise over-cemented Lower Manhattan. Opponents have long attempted to prevent the construction of reasonably priced senior housing at the location that would dismantle one of the very few green spaces left in the neighborhood.
In 2019, Elizabeth Street Garden, the charity in charge of the sculpture garden, contested the city’s approval of a 123-unit, all-affordable building that Pennrose was planning, claiming the city had not conducted a thorough enough environmental evaluation of the property. The project would have around 16,000 square feet of publicly accessible open space in addition to 123 affordable housing units, 37 of which will be reserved for elderly individuals who have experienced homelessness.
The top court in the Big Apple recently decided that the housing project would not have a major negative environmental impact since the city’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development had “rationally determined” this.
“We look forward to resuming engagement with neighbors and community stakeholders in the months to come to ensure Haven Green will be a cherished community asset”. Matthew Dunbar, chief strategy officer and interim co-CEO of the nonprofit Habitat for Humanity said.
The lawsuit to thwart the plans of the principal developer, Philadelphia-based Pennrose, was started by a consortium headed by Joseph Reiver, a gallerist’s son who started leasing the property from the city in 1991. After ruling against the project’s environmental assessment three years later, a state Supreme Court justice agreed with the organization that a more thorough environmental impact statement was required, before the Court of Appeals finally determined that “The [New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development] is not required to address ‘every conceivable environmental impact'”.
“We’re not at all done fighting to save the garden,” said Reiver. “The effort is going to continue. Our legal team is working on the options that we have left”.
