John Sexton, the president of New York University, and Manhattan Borough President Scott M. Stringer yesterday announced that the university, elected officials and community groups had agreed to a set of principles for the university's future expansion.

The university recently projected a need for 6 million square feet of space over the next 25 years and the agreement states that it will pursue re-use of existing buildings before developing new facilities and actively pursue academic and residential centers outside of the Washington Square area where it is based and where it has been constantly expanding significantly in recent years.

"These historic 'town-gown' principles take into account long-standing neighborhood concerns," Mr. Stringer said, "and set out the surrounding community's key role in the future expansion plans." "They reflect months of hard work on the part of the Community Task Force on NYU Development, NYU and my office," he continued.

The university's growth, Mr. Sexton said, "must be accompanied by a respect for the neighborhood 'ecosystem' of which we are a part, and provide our neighbors with predictability and transparency."

Under the guidelines, the university "will also engage in extensive community outreach for new projects, work to minimize negative effects of construction including noise and dust, and develop a relocation policy for legal residential tenants displaced by University projects."

The task force included numerous elected officials, Manhattan Community Boards 2 and 4, the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, the NoHo Neighborhood Association, the SoHo Alliance and the Coalition to Save the East Village among others.

One of the principles adopted is to "make thoughtful urban and architectural design a priority by: respecting the limitations of the urban environment, including the impact on New York City's infrastructure; improving the quality of open spaces; and actively soliciting, utilizing and implementing input from the community in the design process."

Although the university occupies many older buildings of superb architectural quality in an around Washington Square Park, it has, like several other institutions in Manhattan, erected many recent buildings that have not been recognized as architectural masterpieces.

At an "open house" the university sponsored yesterday, university officials discussed some possible development scenarios and the Metro newspaper today reported that "Residents were shocked to see one scenario involving the demolition of Washington Square Village," adding that the university "would build in Downtown Brooklyn, the East Side near its hospital and possibly Governors Island."

An article by Catherine Contiguglia yesterday for The Real Deal said that "After years of speculation and debate, New York University has finally announced its intentions to build a campus of up to 1 million square feet on Governors Island." "Although the university has not yet released any renderings of a Governors Island campus, university officials said the campus would include both academic and residential buildings, as well as athletic facilities," her article continued, adding that "Lynne Brown, NYU's senior vice president for university relations and public affairs, said the university had been approached by the Governors Island Preservation and Education Corporation, the city and state agency known as GIPEC, and began a serious discussion last May."