City Council Will Vote Today on Columbia's M'ville Rezoning Plan

The New York City Council will vote today on Columbia’s Manhattanville rezoning proposal, Council Speaker Christine Quinn’s office confirmed early this morning.

The confirmation comes after days of confusion surrounding the vote’s scheduling after the Coalition to Preserve Community, an anti-expansion activist group, sent out a statement on Monday saying the Council would vote on Wednesday. The vote comes much earlier than expected, as the law allows for it to take place up to the end of January. It will be the final step of the Uniform Land Use Review Procedure and, if passed, will allow Columbia to move forward in its plans to build a campus in Manhattanville.

The full Council vote is scheduled for 1:30 pm. Three City Council committees—Zoning & Franchises, Planning, Dispositions, & Concessions, and Land Use—will vote on Columbia’s 197-c expansion plan in their meetings this morning.

Earlier today, Columbia and the West Harlem Local Development Corporation also agreed to a memorandum of understanding regarding a community benefits agreement of $150 million, according to representatives of the West Harlem Local Development Corporation. The LDC has been negotiating for the area that would be impacted by the effects of Columbia's proposed expansion. Some LDC members felt that negotiations were rushed because of pressure from the early vote.

This morning, CPC member and chair of the LDC education committee Joan Levine resigned from the LDC, according to CPC leader Tom DeMott, CC '80. Another member of the LDC, Rev. Earl Kooperkamp, resigned last night. DeMott, along with Luisa Henriquez and Nick Sprayregen, the second-largest private property owner in the expansion zone, resigned from the LDC three weeks ago.

Daniel Amzallag contributed to this story.