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Budget, Education & City Services
Redevelopment of the former Bellevue Psychiatric Hospital Building
WHEREAS, In 2001 the City Council rezoned the northern portion of the Bellevue campus from E.28th to E.30th Streets restricting building uses to scientific research and development; and
WHEREAS, The 197(a) plan approved by the City Council specifies that development in the First Avenue medical corridor defined in the plan must be related to medical, scientific or institutional uses; and
WHEREAS, A Request for Proposals (RFP) for the redevelopment of the Psych Building included the redevelopment of the building as a hotel and conference center but did not include requests for any other possible medical-related uses (e.g. housing for professional medical staff, medical professional offices, skilled nursing facilities, hospice care); and
WHEREAS, There is a lack of high quality skilled nursing, sub acute care and hospice facilities in Manhattan and especially within the area directly near Bellevue Hospital; and
WHEREAS, The City's proposal for a hotel and conference center is opposed by a large number of Manhattan civic groups and political organizations, as well as the entire delegation of East Side elected representatives, the NYC Comptroller, the Manhattan Borough president, the former NYC Public Advocate, the chairs of the New York State Assembly and Senate Health Committees, and the chair of the Assembly Social Service Committee; and
WHEREAS, In April 2009 Community Board Six unanimously passed a resolution strongly urging the HHC and the NYCEDC to develop the Psych Building consistent with their 197 (a) plan approved for this area and requesting proposals for medically related uses such as a sub-acute facility (e.g. a skilled nursing facility with sub-acute rehabilitation services to complement the acute services available at Rusk Institute); therefore, be it
RESOLVED, Community Board Five, which is within the catchment area for Bellevue Hospital and is represented on the Bellevue Hospital Advisory Board, supports a more specifically medically-related use for the redevelopment of the Bellevue Psychiatric Hospital Building and requests that any RFP include a provision for medically-related uses.
The above resolution passed with a vote of 27 in favor, 4 opposed, 2 abstaining.