Chapter 4: Socioeconomic Conditions
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Chapter 4: Socioeconomic Conditions A. INTRODUCTION The Proposed Actions would facilitate the redevelopment of a 35-acre area in the Manhattanville section of West Harlem and establish a new Special Manhattanville Mixed-Use Zoning District, approximately 17-acres of which would be developed by Columbia as an Academic Mixed-Use Area. The establishment of this Special Mixed-Use Zoning District would result in a change in permitted uses from predominantly light manufacturing to academic, commercial, and other uses, creating more than 7,000 new permanent jobs and an average of approximately 1,215 full- time equivalent construction-related jobs each year through 2030. This chapter describes the potential impacts of the Proposed Actions with respect to the conditions under the socioeconomic reasonable worst-case development scenario. One of the main issues concerning socioeconomic conditions is the involuntary displacement of residents, businesses, and institutions (and the corresponding employment). The 35-acre Project Area contains approximately 160 residential units, and 102 businesses and institutions which generate approximately 2,766 jobs. By 2030, the Proposed Actions would directly displace 135 of the Project Area’s 160 residential units and could directly displace 85 businesses and institutions and approximately 880 jobs (including 75 businesses and institutions and 802 jobs that would be displaced from the Academic Mixed-Use Area). In addition, because the Proposed Actions would result in substantial new development that is markedly different from existing development patterns in the Project Area, indirect (or secondary) displacement could occur outside of the Project Area. In accordance with the guidelines presented in the 2001 City Environmental Quality Review (CEQR) Technical Manual, this chapter evaluates five specific factors that could create significant adverse socioeconomic impacts in an area: (1) direct displacement of a residential population; (2) direct displacement of existing businesses and institutions; (3) indirect displacement of a residential population; (4) indirect displacement of businesses and institutions; and (5) adverse effects on specific industries not necessarily tied to a project site or area. Although not required by the CEQR Technical Manual, the chapter also presents estimates of the fiscal and economic benefits and costs of new development in the subdistricts that comprise the 35-acre Project Area. The chapter is organized as follows: • Section A presents an introduction and summary of principal conclusions; • Section B provides an overview of the methodology utilized in assessing potential socioeconomic impacts; • Section C presents the preliminary assessments of residential, business, and institutional displacement (both direct and indirect), and the preliminary assessment of potential adverse effects on specific industries; 4-1 Proposed Manhattanville in West Harlem Rezoning and Academic Mixed-Use Development • Section D presents detailed assessments of direct business and institutional displacement, indirect residential displacement, and indirect business and institutional displacement; and • Section E describes the estimated fiscal and economic benefits and costs of the construction and operations of development that are likely to result from the Proposed Actions. PRINCIPAL CONCLUSIONS By 2015, under the socioeconomic reasonable worst-case development scenario,1 the Proposed Actions would not result in any significant adverse impacts as measured by the five socioeconomic areas of concern prescribed in the CEQR Technical Manual (numbered above). By 2030, there is the potential for a significant adverse impact with respect to one of the five areas of socioeconomic concern—indirect residential displacement—but that impact would be limited to the primary study area.2 Development resulting from the Proposed Actions would generate substantial economic benefits for New York City and New York State. The following summarizes the principal conclusions drawn from the analysis. DIRECT RESIDENTIAL DISPLACEMENT The Proposed Actions would not result in significant adverse impacts due to direct residential displacement. Although by 2030 all residents from the 135 housing units located in the Academic Mixed-Use Area would be displaced (it is estimated that 298 residents currently occupy those housing units), this displaced population represents less than 1 percent of the populations in the primary and secondary study areas, and the directly displaced population exhibits characteristics in terms of housing and demographic profiles that are not unique to the study areas. Therefore, the number and types of people displaced would not be enough to alter neighborhood character. Columbia has acquired control of three sites outside of the Project Area (but within the study areas) to provide relocation sites for new, permanent, and affordable replacement housing buildings for tenants directly displaced from existing residential buildings in Subdistrict A of the Project Area. If the owners listed here were to agree, the three sites would accommodate tenants of: the two residential buildings owned by the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) as part of its Tenant Interim Lease (TIL) Program; the two residential buildings that are owned and operated by the Charles Innis Housing Development Fund Corporation, a subsidiary of the Harlem Congregations for Community Improvement, Inc. (HCCI); the two residential buildings owned and operated by the West Harlem Group Assistance (WHGA) Renaissance Apartments, Limited Partnership, a subsidiary of WHGA. In addition, the two units on the property of the Iglesia el Encuentro con Dios would also be replaced on one of the 1 The socioeconomic reasonable worst-case development scenario was designed to maximize potential indirect residential and business displacement pressures under the Proposed Actions. The scenario maximizes the amount of potential University general academic and academic research space, and minimizes on-site housing for graduate students, faculty, and other employees, and private commercial ground-floor space. Direct displacement is unaffected by variations in the types of uses considered for a worst-case scenario. 2 The study areas—defined as the areas most likely to be affected by the Proposed Actions—encompass approximately the same areas as the roughly ¼- and ½-mile primary and secondary land use study areas, which include three distinct neighborhoods: Manhattanville, including the Project Area; Morningside Heights to the south of the Project Area; and Hamilton Heights to the north of the Project Area. See Figure 4-1. 4-2 Chapter 4: Socioeconomic Conditions three relocation housing sites. Occupants of the units in the Iglesia de Dios Pentecostal would be relocated in new residential units in the planned church building at its own relocation site. This move would occur with or without the Proposed Actions. Housing on the replacement sites would be constructed by third party developers in accordance with HPD standards and would be of the same or better quality than those units occupied by tenants in these six buildings. The new housing would provide tenants equal rental rates and homeownership opportunities compared with the terms within the Project Area. Tenants would relocate from these buildings, or from interim housing, when their new housing is ready for occupancy, which could occur prior to the 2015 analysis year. Dwelling units within the existing privately owned apartment building at Broadway and West 133rd Street are subject to federal and City regulatory agreements which extend until 2015 and 2029, respectively. Before that site would be available to Columbia to commence construction of the Academic Mixed-Use Development Plan, the Empire State Development Corporation (ESDC) would require that the occupants of these units be relocated to equal or better housing units, at affordable rents. Therefore, by 2030, it is anticipated that all residents in the Academic Mixed-Use Area would be relocated to new housing within the study areas. DIRECT BUSINESS AND INSTITUTIONAL DISPLACEMENT The Proposed Actions would not result in significant adverse impacts due to direct business and institutional displacement. By 2030, the Proposed Actions could directly displace 85 businesses and institutions (approximately 880 employees) that provide a variety of products and services and represent 12 economic sectors, the largest of which is the other services sector (accounting for 160 employees).1 The potentially displaced businesses and institutions were determined not to be of substantial economic value to the City or region as defined under CEQR, and would be able to relocate in the study areas or elsewhere in the City. The potentially displaced businesses and institutions do not contribute substantially to a defining element of neighborhood character in the primary and secondary study areas. The economic sectors with the highest employment in the study areas (those which define the character of the area in an economic sense) are not, in large part, based in the Project Area, and, therefore, the loss of displaced businesses and institutions due to the Proposed Actions would not substantially alter neighborhood character in the study areas. INDIRECT RESIDENTIAL DISPLACEMENT With respect to the potential for indirect residential displacement, the CEQR Technical Manual requires that the impact of a residential population added to an