As many of you are aware, Union proposes to use its Lenox Road properties for faculty and administrative offices. Feeling as I do-that the facts of any issue need to be placed on the table before an informed discussion can take place-I want to detail the College's position and clarify some statements that have been made in the local press.
The properties, located immediately adjacent to the Union campus, were acquired or under option before 1984 when the uses the College contemplates were allowed by special use permit. A 1984 zoning ordinance eliminated special uses within the area (for our purposes), commonly referred to as the GE Realty Plot.
Our intent is to relocate some College offices to Lenox Road to create more residence hall space on campus. The relocation would enable us to bring seventy-five to eighty students who now live off-campus back on-campus, in keeping with the residential nature of the campus.
Currently, three of the Lenox Road properties have houses used as residences by faculty, staff, or guests; two have vacant houses; and three are vacant lots.
There are several important points to keep in mind:
- We propose no changes to the exteriors of the buildings other than to add accessible lifts for the handicapped, lifts that would be screened by landscaping. Alterations to the interiors would be done so that they would be reversible and the buildings could be returned to single-family use. No facilities are planned for the vacant lots.
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All employee parking will continue to be on campus, and employees and visitors would walk across Lenox Road. An environmental impact statement, prepared by the LA group, landscape architects and engineers, found that
there would be no significant impact on local services such as water supply, sewage disposal, police or fire protection (we provide our own security patrols). - We are prepared to consent to all mutually
agreed-upon covenants regarding the use of the houses, i.e., prohibiting their use for student residences or any purpose other than strictly defined faculty and/or administrative use. - We will work with the various taxing agencies to keep the city “whole” by agreeing, through negotiation, to pay taxes on other College-owned properties in the Plot that are presently tax-exempt.
Union has requested that only faculty and administrative offices and guest houses be allowed to avoid any impact that might be associated with
higher intensity uses, such as classrooms. We feel that office use is in keeping with the character of the neighborhood, which already contains professional offices, apartments, a church, a day school, and a city park. The Lenox Road properties all face the College, and they have extensive landscaping and screening on their rear property lines.
Any time an institution wants to undertake changes that will affect its neighbors, it must do so cautiously. From the start, we were very much aware of the historic nature of our campus and the nearby neighborhood. Although we did not have to do an environmental impact statement, I commissioned one to make sure that there would be no negative impacts from our proposal.
The environmental impact statement found that our proposals would not harm the neighborhood, and a property value impact analysis showed that no adverse impact on property values is foreseen. In fact, because the College
has the desire and resources to maintain the properties, over the long term continued ownership and upkeep by the College can contribute to the stability of values, the analysis said.
We seek the change because we have exhausted any extra space previously available on our historic campus, the first in America with a coherent architectural plan. In the past two decades, we have added a number of academic programs, such as a new Geology Department, and renovated several facilities, such as the College Center and the Alumni Gymnasium.
Currently, the Morton and Helen Yulman Theater is under construction, the Nott Memorial is being renovated, and plans call for the renovation of the existing library. The only remaining space available for additional construction is near the intersection of Nott Street and Seward Place, but this area must serve as parking for the new buildings and for students, faculty, staff, and visitors.
Union competes with many high quality institutions for the best students. In addition, we have made a commitment-unusual among employers these days-that no employee will lose his or her job as a result of current economic conditions.
We are convinced that the ability to use our Lenox Road properties will contribute to continuing strength in both of these areas. It will add greatly to the College's attractiveness to
potential students, and it will contribute to economic stability by adding to Union's revenue base.
Roger H. Hull