City Postpones Final Inwood Library Community Report

INWOOD, NY — City officials will no longer be announcing a final draft of its community report for the Inwood library redevelopment plan during Tuesday night's Community Board 12 meeting. Instead, the city Department of Housing Preservation and Development and the New York Public Library will hold an extended public comment session until May 31, city officials announced.

Representatives from HPD and the NYPL will not attend Tuesday's community board meeting, officials said.

Community Board 12 chair Shah Ally told Patch that HPD and NYPL representatives were not planning to give a full presentation on the library redevelopment Tuesday night.

"The only purpose of HPD speaking tomorrow was to tell the public that the updated project would be available online," Ally told Patch in an email. "That is no longer the case since the deadline for public comments has been extended."

The community board will not formally discuss or vote on the project until it is brought before the board during public review, Ally told Patch.

A plan to tear down the existing Inwood library, located on Broadway between Dyckman and Academy streets, and replace it with an affordable housing building containing a new library was first proposed in January. The plan was proposed by HPD, the NYPL and will receive $5 million from nonprofit The Robin Hood Foundation.

The new development plan has prove polarizing in the neighborhood. Many Inwood residents have balked at the proposal to build a private housing development on public land with the new library effectively acting as a tenant. Opponents have also warned that Inwood will be without much-needed library services during the construction of the new building. At every Community Board 12 meeting since January, opponents of the plan have made their voices heard during public comment sessions.

On the other hand, the proposal has near-unanimous support from elected officials representing the neighborhood. The politicians support the project, which many called a beneficial use of public land, because 100 percent of the apartment units created will be offered at prices below the market rate, they announced in a joint statement.

"I applaud Mayor Bill de Blasio and his administration for exploring housing options in our neighborhood in creative ways. With housing costs higher and higher due to a lack of supply, many Inwood residents are spending more than a third of their income rent, and some even more," City Councilman Rodriguez said.

The city has not yet released a request for proposals on the project, which means certain details about the future development such as levels of affordability and projected building height remain unknown. According to HPD's original schedule, the RFP is expected to be released this summer after a final community visioning report.

Photo by Google Maps street view