LOWER MANHATTAN (WABC) — A beloved community sculpture garden in Northern Little Italy will be preserved after months of lawsuits and conservation efforts from nonprofit volunteers, community members, and even celebrities.
The future of Elizabeth Street Garden had been in limbo after initial plans to build affordable housing for seniors at the site.
Now, the city government plans to use rezoning rules to preserve the garden while building additional affordable housing units elsewhere in Lower Manhattan, Mayor Eric Adams announced in a statement.
On Monday, Mayor Adams announced a signed agreement with City Councilmember Christopher Marte to support rezoning and increase the amount of new affordable housing to be created in Council District 1, building over 620 new affordable homes while preserving Elizabeth Street Garden.
Under the agreement, Elizabeth Street Garden will remain a community garden, and the city will require it to remain open for public use from 8:00 AM to 8:00 PM daily.
“We have always pursued a solution that provides affordable housing without any loss to the community,” Elizabeth Street Garden, Inc., the 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization that protects the greenspace, said in a statement posted to social media.
“We will now be creating more than five times the affordable housing in this district than would otherwise have been possible from taking this garden site alone and, at the same time, preserving this community garden in an area largely bereft of parkland,” said First Deputy Mayor Randy Mastro.
However, the move is not without critics.
“Amidst a severe housing and affordability crisis, Mayor Adams, First Deputy Mayor Mastro, and their administration have betrayed New Yorkers who are in desperate need of affordable homes,” said City Council Speaker and mayoral candidate Adrienne Adams.
“Their political interference to stop the building of Haven Green’s 123 units of deeply affordable housing for older adults, with 14,000 square feet of public space, is yet another example of this mayoral administration’s capitulation to special interests. This shows the Mayor’s Charter Revision Commission to be the height of hypocrisy and a sham for ignoring the role mayoral administrations play in obstructing new housing for New Yorkers. The Mayor is not only overturning a housing approval by the Council from six years ago, but also denying homes to older adults, as he fails to address our housing crisis with this decision.”
As for the planned affordable housing units, Mayor Adams says the new building sites include 156-166 Bowery, 22 Suffolk Street, and 100 Gold Street.
“Together, these sites offer a more effective and equitable solution: more housing, including for seniors, and more green space for a neighborhood already underserved by open space – achieving both without any loss to the City of New York,” Elizabeth Street Garden, Inc. reacted, calling the move “a true win-win.”
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