The minds behind the Low Line underground park on the Lower East Side are seeking to tie the proposed project to a city-issued request for proposals for the nearby Seward Park redevelopment, the Lo Down blog reported.
At a community board meeting last night, Dan Barasch, the co-founder of the Low Line, asked board representatives to “consider the Low Line as a community-based organization that could provide new public space administered by a [non-profit] organization we have set up.”
However, officials with the New York City Economic Development Corp. said at the meeting that this would not be possible, primarily because the space for the Low Line is on land controlled by the state-run Metropolitan Transportation Authority. In addition, the site has not gone through the public land use approval process.
Previously, the MTA said it would issue its own RFP for the underground space after the city finished the Seward Park land use process. Now, Barasch said, he and his group are “focused on how we might work with the MTA” to strike a legal agreement for the use of the space. [The Lo Down] — Zachary Kussin