Columbia Expansion Gets Green Light

Columbia Expansion Gets Green Light - New York Times

The university plans a $7 billion project over the next 25 years that will transform a section of Upper Manhattan now dominated by warehouses and auto body shops into a campus with glass-walled high-rise buildings, tree-lined thoroughfares and student dormitories.

It plans to provide open space for the community and the university and a permanent site for the new, university-assisted public secondary school for math, science and engineering.

The community benefits agreement that was completed Tuesday night calls for Columbia to grant $150 million to residents of the area during the next 12 years.

Of that sum:
$76 million would go into a flexible benefit fund to be overseen by a committee of community and Columbia representatives
$50 million would be dedicated to in-kind services, including $30 million toward a school for kindergarten through eighth grade
$20 million would be set aside for a housing fund
$4 million would go toward legal services to help those displaced by the development.