Columbia expansion weighed

Columbia University is holding meetings with the Planning Commission and neighborhood residents this week in an effort to gain support for its $5.8 billion West Harlem expansion plans. The school’s plans are currently in the midst of a seven-month public review process. Community Board 9, meanwhile, will have a public hearing tonight to present land-use guidelines for West Harlem that the board has helped formulate. The community board’s guidelines would not allow Columbia to take land for its expansion by eminent domain, and they would only allow the school to develop about 30 percent of the approximately 6 million square feet that it wants to build. more [Sun]