The battle over the Elizabeth Street Garden, in the NoLIta neighborhood of Manhattan, goes back more than a decade to when a city councilwoman first proposed building housing on the site.
The councilwoman, Margaret Chin, and the Bloomberg administration transferred the ownership of the garden, which is about 20,000 square feet and used to be an abandoned city-owned lot, to the New York City Housing Authority. A yearslong legal and political battle followed.
Community residents rallied to preserve and protect the garden and eventually formed a nonprofit dedicated to the cause. But the plan continued to move forward, until former Mayor Eric Adams reversed his support for the development last year and moved to block it.
Here is a timeline of the Elizabeth Street Garden dispute.
September 2012: Councilwoman Margaret Chin negotiates with the Bloomberg administration to build subsidized housing at the site of the Elizabeth Street Garden. The garden ownership is transferred to the New York City Housing Authority and plans are announced to build an affordable housing complex with 123 units for older New Yorkers.
August 2014: Community members, local business owners and advocates join together to create the nonprofit Friends of Elizabeth Street Garden to preserve and transform the garden into a community space, increase public access, run programming and organize a volunteer system that keeps the garden open to the public daily.
Sept. 21, 2015: Despite the group’s efforts, Ms. Chin maintains her stance and argues that the best use of the property is to build affordable housing units for older New Yorkers. “I’ve been fighting for seniors and their families to be able to remain in the neighborhood they helped build,” she says in an interview. “Not building on that site is wrong. That site has not been fully utilized for years.”
Sept. 14, 2016: The Department of Housing Preservation and Development issues a request for proposals to develop the garden lot into affordable housing for older New Yorkers.
Jan. 26, 2017: Elizabeth Street Garden, a new nonprofit, is formed to manage and maintain the garden and provide free public and educational programming for the community.
Dec. 8, 2017: The housing department awards the development to Penrose Properties in partnership with Habitat NYC and RiseBoro, and releases plans for 123 affordable housing units for older New Yorkers, as well as a public open space.
Nov. 13, 2018: The department receives certification to begin the Uniform Land Use Review Procedure. As required by the City Charter, ULURP (pronounced “you-lurp”) is an approval process for changes in land use.
Jan. 24, 2019: Manhattan’s Community Board 2 votes in favor of saving the garden.
Feb. 26, 2019: Gale Brewer, the Manhattan borough president, endorses the proposed development. Ms. Brewer says that “we must allocate more resources — both land and subsidy — to the development of quality affordable housing that accommodates the needs of an aging population.”
March 5, 2019: Elizabeth Street Garden files a lawsuit against the City of New York and the Department of Housing Preservation and Development in an attempt to halt the demolition.
June 18, 2024: The New York State Court of Appeals, the state’s highest court, rules in favor of the city. .
June 23, 2025: Mayor Eric Adams announces that the city will abandon its plan to build an affordable housing complex at the site of the garden. The garden will be preserved under a new agreement with the local councilman, Christopher Marte, who agreed to support rezoning at three different sites that could eventually create more than 600 affordable housing units.
Oct. 28, 2025: Zohran Mamdani, during his campaign for mayor, says in a news interview that he will turn the Elizabeth Street Garden into affordable housing if he is elected.
Nov. 3, 2025: In a letter to the New York City parks commissioner, Iris Rodriguez-Rosa, the Adams administration says the city “unequivocally and permanently dedicates this property to public use as parkland.” The designation means Mr. Mamdani, the mayor-elect, will need the approval of the State Legislature to build housing on the site. Randy Mastro, the first deputy mayor, said in a statement, “We are committed to ensuring Elizabeth Street Garden remains a beloved community park and cannot be alienated in the future.”
Nov. 19, 2025: Developers sue the city for declaring the garden as permanent parkland and say they want to “prevent an outgoing administration from destroying an urgently needed affordable-housing project through an act of naked executive power.” The suit calls the move a “lawless act” that lacked legislative authority.
Aug. 11: Mr. Mamdani is expected to walk away from a plan to build affordable housing on the community garden, according to two people familiar with the decision.