MANHATTANVILLE NEIGHBORHOOD CONDITIONS STUDY May 2, 2008 Prepared for: Carter Ledyard & Milburn LLP 2 Wall Street New York, NY 10005 Prepared by: Earth Tech, Inc. One World Financial Center 200 Liberty Street New York, NY 10281 Manhattanville Neighborhood Conditions Study Table of Contents Chapter Title Page Executive Summary ................................................................... ES-1 1 INTRODUCTION.................................................................... 1-1 2 NEIGHBORHOOD CONDITIONS.......................................... 2-1 2.1 Zoning and Land Use ...................................................................2-1 2.1.1 Manufacturing Zoning ........................................................2-1 2.1.2 Special Manhattanville Mixed Use District .........................2-1 2.1.3 Existing Land Use..............................................................2-3 2.2 Neighborhood Isolation and Visual Conditions .............................2-7 2.2.1 Visual Boundaries..............................................................2-7 2.2.2 Visual Character of Study Area........................................2-10 2.3 Underutilization and Vacancies ..................................................2-20 2.3.1 Underutilization................................................................2-20 2.3.2 Vacancies ........................................................................2-23 2.4 Building Code Violations.............................................................2-24 2.5 Environmental Contamination ....................................................2-25 2.6 Overall Neighborhood Conditions...............................................2-27 2.6.1 Land Use .........................................................................2-28 2.6.2 Visual Character ..............................................................2-29 2.6.3 Underutilization and Vacancies........................................2-30 2.6.4 Building Code Violations..................................................2-30 2.6.5 Environmental Concerns .................................................2-31 2.6.6 Building Conditions ..........................................................2-32 2.7 Conclusion… ..............................................................................2-44 3 BUILDING CONDITIONS.......................................................3-1 APPENDIX A: Supporting Tables i Manhattanville Neighborhood Conditions Study List of Figures Figure Title Following Page ES-1 Study Area ...........................................................................................ES-2 ES-2 Overview of Substandard Conditions ...................................................ES-4 1 Study Area..............................................................................................1-2 2 Former Manufacturing Zoning.................................................................2-2 3 Current Zoning ........................................................................................2-2 4 Existing Land Use (Map Pluto)................................................................2-6 5 Land Use (Field Survey)..........................................................................2-6 6 Building Heights ....................................................................................2-12 7 Site Utilization .......................................................................................2-24 8 Vacancies..............................................................................................2-24 9 Building Code Violations .......................................................................2-26 10 Environmental Issues............................................................................2-26 11 Lot Conditions .......................................................................................2-32 List of Tables Table Title Page 1 Existing Land Uses in Study Area ...........................................................2-4 2 Site Utilization in the Study Area under Former and Current Zoning.....2-21 3 Vacancies by Block and Lot ..................................................................2-24 Appendix A-1 Comparison of Building Code Violations for Properties in the Study Area: Open Violations as of July 2006 and February 2008 .......................... A-2 Environmental Issues................................................................................... ii Manhattanville Neighborhood Conditions Study Executive Summary ES1 Introduction In January 2008, Carter Ledyard and Milburn LLP, acting on behalf of the New York State Empire State Development Corporation (ESDC), requested Earth Tech, Inc. to perform an independent review or “audit” of the report Manhattanville Neighborhood Conditions Study (November 1, 2007) prepared by AKRF, Inc. The AKRF study was commissioned by the ESDC to evaluate conditions in a study area approximately coterminous with the area proposed for a new campus by Columbia University in the Manhattanville section of Manhattan. The area has since (12/19/07) been rezoned by the City from its former manufacturing zones (M1-2, M2-3 and M3-1) to a new Special Manhattanville Mixed Use District (with C6-1 and C6-2 zoning). The study area covers approximately 17-acres in a six-block study area bounded by Twelfth Avenue to the west, Broadway and Old Broadway to the east, West 133rd Street and W.134th Street to the north, and West 125th Street to the south (see Figure ES-1 - Study Area). The AKRF report’s major findings are that the study area is mainly characterized by aging, poorly maintained, and functionally obsolete industrial buildings, with little indication of recent reinvestment to reverse their generally deteriorated conditions, particularly in industrial properties. During February to April 2008, Earth Tech has independently reviewed the Manhattanville Neighborhood Conditions Study prepared by AKRF, including its Appendix B incorporating the findings of the engineering firm Thornton Tomasetti, detailing the structural condition of buildings in the study area. As part of this review, Earth Tech inspected the 67 tax lots that comprise the study area, assessing each in terms of their structural and physical characteristics, and surveyed the study area, noting current land uses, vacancies, and the neighborhood’s visual conditions. In addition, Earth Tech conducted various searches of public data bases on environmental contamination, Building Code violations, and ownership records. Earth Tech has compared its own findings with those of AKRF and Thornton Tomasetti. ES2 Findings Earth Tech’s independently arrived at findings substantially confirm those of AKRF and Thornton Tomasetti, and although some features in the neighborhood have been stabilized in the interim (e.g., replaced sidewalks), Earth Tech has in several instances downgraded particular buildings that appear to have further deteriorated since the prior inspections. Earth Tech now rates 37 sites (or 55 percent) as in critical or poor condition (as shown in Figure 11 – Lot Conditions, and documented by individual lot in Chapter 3 of this report). The AKRF report had earlier defined 34 lots (51 percent) as in critical or poor condition. ES-1 Manhattanville Neighborhood Conditions Study Chapter 2 of this report reviews a variety of factors describing the conditions in the study area. Beginning with land use, Earth Tech documents the land uses in the neighborhood, noting the dominant uses as auto-transportation, light industry and warehouse, which together account for 72 percent of the occupied lots; a pattern reflective of its historic manufacturing zoning. There are no public open spaces, only two small religious institutions, and seven residential structures, two of which are presently vacant. There are also only a handful of retail businesses, located at the periphery of the study area on Broadway and Twelfth Avenue. The dominant land uses, particularly the auto-repair shops, generate a severe wear-and- tear on the neighborhood’s infrastructure, as well as on the individual lots at which they operate. The service and storage of vehicles and auto repair and painting has a prolonged history of careless maintenance, frequently creating health and safety concerns. One example is the common use of sidewalks as vehicle storage and sales space, adding to visual clutter, as well as creating safety hazards for pedestrians forced into the street. Particularly after dusk, the area is not conducive to pedestrians, thereby isolating it and the surrounding community from the West Harlem Piers Park along the Hudson River. Other former industrial uses include manufactured gas, chemicals, electronics and other operations with hazardous components. This legacy of historic industrial use combines with over a century of indiscriminate urban-fill during the area’s transportation and industrial dominance, presenting inherent concerns with the study area’s environmental contamination. Severely contaminated lots require extensive capital investment in order to be redeveloped. The long-standing lack of investor interest in the neighborhood is fundamentally reflected in the few buildings constructed since 1961, only three: the MTA’s Manhattanville bus depot, a gas station, and a small UHaul truck rental structure (now vacant). A second indicator of demand - utilization of a site’s potential zoning bulk - similarly exhibits low utilization rates, with only 43 percent of lots reaching 60 percent of the permitted floor area under the