Attention West Village NEIGHBORS and FRIENDS

St. Luke in the Fields Church has proposed the construction of a new mission building on the historic corner at Hudson and Christopher Streets.

This project poses MANY potential risks and is a cause of great concern

WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW:

1. Immediate proximity to two elementary schools and close to 3 other schools that serve students up to 8th grade
2. Open drug use is already an issue in our beautiful neighborhood,
3. Narcan will be readily available at St. Luke’s for potential overdoses,
4. All day/every day access to bagged lunches will bring crowds,
5. Threat to local security due to increased numbers seeking help,
6. Dislocation of pedestrians and commuters from increased foot traffic,
7. Significant disruption of a calm, residential neighborhood
8. Years of disruptive, major construction 
9. Potential negative impact on property values.

WHAT YOU CAN DO:

Your attention to this matter is crucial to maintaining the safety of our historic neighborhood 

Spread the word and make yourself heard: 
Erik Bottcher, District 3 City Council member: district3@council.nyc.gov 
Community Board 2: info@manhattancb2.org 
Mark Levine, Manhattan Borough President: info@manhattanbp.nyc.gov 
Attend CB2 Meeting when St. Luke’s presents their plan (TBD)

Sincerely,

Your Neighbors 

Help Protect YOUR Neighborhood

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For more detail and background on the church's plan for the mission building, please read further below: 

Dear Members of the Board of Manhattan Community Board 2,

We are writing to you as neighbors, families and small business owners who reside and/or work in the historic West Village.  We would like to express our concerns about the Church of St. Luke in the Fields’ plan to erect a 4,400-square-foot mission building for $11.5MM on the superblock located at the corner of Christopher and Hudson Streets.

As active members of this diverse and vibrant community, we support and commend the church’s long-standing and stated mission of meeting the needs of our neighbors through ministry, its support of LGBTQ+ youth, the homeless, NYC elementary school students who participate in the GO Project, migrant families, and through other much-needed programs.  We would, however, very much like to open a dialogue with you to address our concerns about the impact that this new building could have on our community for many years to come.

Our primary concerns are the following:

The safety and security of the community: The safety of the children in our neighborhood and the broader community is of paramount importance to us. Within two blocks of the proposed building are the following educational facilities: St. Luke’s School (pre-K to 8th grade), PS3 Charrette School (pre-K to 5th grade), Village Community School (pre-K to 8th grade), 75 Morton School/MS 297 (6th-8th grade), Bright Horizons, a nursery school and daycare center, and the NYU dormitory at 636 Greenwich Street. The increased presence of individuals who might be in need of drug rehabilitation (Narcan will continue to be available), or facing mental health challenges or who are homeless requires thoughtful planning and comprehensive support to ensure the safety and security of all community members and business owners. Even without the mission building, there are already a number of homeless individuals in our neighborhood who are often seen using drugs in broad daylight or passed out on the sidewalk.  We are rightfully concerned that this problem will only increase once the mission building is built.

The intended use of the building: Rector Mother Caroline Stacey’s letter (https://s3.amazonaws.com/account-media/25850/uploaded/m/0e17887053_1712246364_mission-building-1st-letter-to-parish.pdf to the parish on the purpose of the new building is worthy of much praise conceptually, but it is very short on detail.  For example, it is not at all clear how we should interpret this passage on page six:

“Our core Outreach staff are trained in opioid overdose prevention and we carry a supply of Narcan in the parish office, just in case. It would greatly enhance our service to these weekday guests if there was a dedicated outreach space with a direct street-level entrance and space to wait beyond the stoop.”

Could this statement serve as an invitation to “weekday guests,” when schools are in session, to shoot up near St. Luke in the Fields because along with Narcan, the church states elsewhere in the letter that it also provides “a sandwich, two snacks, bottled water along with some food for later and often individualized clothing … “?

While the church has made it clear that it would like an additional 4,400 square feet (2,300 square feet of “event” space after subtracting for entry, kitchen, restrooms, storage, etc) to serve more individuals by expanding its existing programming, it has not yet communicated how the ongoing management and security of the block and the neighborhood will be maintained given that the mission building will be across the street from the PATH station.  Since the planned space could potentially hold 250-300 people at any point in time, how will a long line of people in need of food and clothing impact the students entering and leaving the grounds of St. Luke’s and neighboring schools? Given the proximity of the new building to the PATH, who and how many people could this new building potentially serve? And how far will the spillover of those seeking help spread through the neighborhood, thereby potentially negatively impacting local businesses’ efforts to maintain their customer base?  Moreover, the stated intention of making Narcan readily available to more people raises significant questions about the daily use of the mission building and who and how many drug-users it is seeking to aid. In short, there are no projections at all about how many people this new 4,400-square-foot building is meant to serve on a daily basis.

Ongoing operational and financial support: The leadership of St. Luke’s has also not yet shared how they will finance the increase in operational costs and the ongoing maintenance of the building.  We would very much like to have clarity on how they will manage security and to understand thoroughly what plans they have in place to hire enough highly trained staff to manage the anticipated influx of people and the expanded programming, especially since they have explicitly stated that they would like more space to be able to administer Narcan on a wider scale. Offering bag lunches 24/7 will create a constant stream of needy visitors who will continue arriving and queuing throughout each and every day. Again, the church has not provided any financial projections or any guidance on how many people it would like to support and how much it will cost to help them safely, effectively and efficiently keeping the broader community in mind.

The impact of construction and its timeline: The project will cause significant noise, dust, and potentially hazardous conditions which will negatively impact not only the learning environment at neighboring schools, but also the overall quality of life for community members. The construction will interrupt daily routines, increase traffic in an already congested area, and create safety hazards for students and residents. Apart from stating that the project will start in 2026, there has otherwise been no communication regarding the construction timeline, leaving community members uncertain about the duration of these disruptions. This will be a bitter pill to swallow if the proposed building could have a long-lasting detrimental impact on our community.

As neighbors, families and business owners living and working in this beautiful corner of the West Village, we would be very disappointed indeed if this new development compromises the safety and security of so many school-aged children and the neighborhood as a whole. We are so fortunate to have a great many vibrant restaurants and shops that benefit all of us and also attract visitors. At a time when retail businesses and local restaurants have seen such hardships, we’ve been lucky that so many of our local places have thrived for a decade or more: Health and Harmony, Hudson Clearwater, Cowgirl, L’Artusi, Oscar’s Place, I Sodi, The Clam, Little Owl, Henrietta Hudson and Sushi Nakazawa are just a few examples.  All of our small businesses give us a beautifully alive street culture in a lovely patch of the West Village and are what attracted many of us to this neighborhood in the first place.

We would like to end by reiterating what we said at the beginning: many people in our neighborhood have supported and will continue to support the church’s mission to help our neighbors in need and to provide excellent programming to the underserved. But we would also like the church to be more thoughtful and transparent about how expanding the existing programs will impact residents and small business owners who live and work near the church and the West Village as a whole.