New York University is planning to apply for a major rezoning of its two South Village superblocks, which, among other things, would allow it to build a planned tower up to 38 stories tall - which would be half residential and half hotel - on its southern superblock, according to an article by Lincoln Anderson with reporting by John W. Sutter in this week's edition of The Villager.

"Without the rezoning, N.Y.U. would only be able to build the tower half as big, since the block's current zoning doesn't allow that much residential development; N.Y.U. also would be unable to include a hotel in the tower, since the block's current zoning forbids transient hotels. Also part of the plan, N.Y.U. is seeking to demap and acquire narrow strips of property currently owned by the city's Department of Transportation on the sides of the superblocks along Mercer St. and LaGuardia Place," the article said.

"The Villager learned about the proposal - which would change the megablocks' zoning from R72 to C62 - when it was recently leaked to the newspaper by a community member on the Borough President's Community Task Force on N.Y.U. Development. The task force's discussions are supposed to be confidential. Told that The Villager was aware the proposal was for a C62 rezoning, Alicia Hurley, N.Y.U.'s vice president for government affairs and community engagement, agreed to meet with the newspaper to explain the plan's details accurately. Joining Hurley at the meeting with The Villager last Thursday were William Haas, N.Y.U.'s planner; and Bob Davis, the university's outside land-use counsel. Though their hand was forced by the task force leak, Hurley stressed the university hadn't intended to make the plan public yet. 'This is a very sensitive time for us,' she said of the rezoning, which is certain to draw fire from community opponents," the article noted.

Although N.Y.U. has commenced discussions about the rezoning with the task force, the article said it has not yet shown the plan to the Department of City Planning.

According to the article, "N.Y.U. wants this new fourth tower it would add in its University Village complex to be half for faculty housing and half for a hotel for visiting N.Y.U. faculty from abroad and others, such as visiting parents and students. The block's current zoning has a 6.5 F.A.R. for community facilities (such as dormitories), which would allow a 38-story tower - but neither faculty housing nor a transient hotel are allowed under this use group. Under the rezoning, the block's community-facilities F.A.R. would remain at 6.5, but the allowable commercial F.A.R. would jump from 2.0 to 6.0, which would allow a taller, mixed-use building on the current Coles gym site."

"Current zoning," the article continued, "doesn't allow new buildings to be added to the southern superblock, neither a fourth tower nor new construction on top of the existing Coles gym. However, Hurley said, that under N.Y.U.'s proposed C62 zoning, 'more of the lot can be covered,' which she acknowledged is 'another potential flash point' with opponents."

Under the university's plans, the article said, the Morton Williams supermarket could be moved from the block's northwest corner to the ground floor of this new building at the block's southeast corner (on the Coles site), freeing up its former site for public open space.

On the Washington Square Village superblock, the article said that the buildings are currently constructed to an F.A.R. of 4.1, adding that "the taller of two infill buildings that the university would like to add in the complex's courtyard, on the Mercer St. side, would have an F.A.R. of 5.4."

Current zoning doesn't allow new buildings to be added in the block's interior but the university wants to add two "infill" buildings, and the article noted that Andrew Berman, director of the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, likened to their preliminary designs to "Space Mountain."