Elizabeth Street Garden eviction pause may end as soon as this week as activists await appeals court decision
They’re planting their feet in the ground.The fate of the beloved 20,000-square-foot Elizabeth Street Garden in Nolita — where the city is vying to build 123 affordable housing units — may be sealed in the coming days as activists await a decision regarding whether its eviction will be paused as they fight their appeal in housing court, an attorney for the greenspace told The Post.A decision on the garden’s motion to pause the eviction and demolition until the case — an appeal of a June court ruling that approved the city’s plan to build the controversial Haven Green housing development — is resolved could come as soon as Wednesday, Norman Siegel, an attorney for the sculpture garden, said Wednesday morning.“All the parties have to get their papers in by the end of today,” he said.“Then, what happens is the clerk sends the paper to the full court — three judges — to decide on the motion,” which could happen “tonight, tomorrow or next week, who knows.”A spokesperson for the Housing and Preservation Department told The Post that the city “will take repossession as soon as legally permissible and remain steadfast in our commitment to building more affordable housing in every neighborhood and Haven Green is part of that commitment.”When asked if the garden will have time to move its sculptures should the court deny a full eviction pause, a spokesperson for City Hall told The Post that the window “is currently ongoing and has been ongoing for years.”Siegel added that “it’s very, very unlikely that anything will happen” Wednesday, noting the last-minute legal win temporarily pausing the garden’s eviction from earlier this month “stays in effect until a decision on the motion pending the appeal is decided.”Organizers were originally told to vacate the garden by Oct.
17 after it was served an eviction notice on Oct.2.The news comes as Mayor Eric Adams on Tuesday renewed his vow to pave over the rare Manhattan respite, citi...