Columbia Expansion Foe Loses Vote

It doesn’t seem like the West Harlem Community Board cares much for anything: In August, they broadly rejected Columbia University’s proposal to expand. Thursday night, the Columbia Spectator reports, the board voted against a plan put forth by Nick Sprayregen, the property owner who has been fighting the university’s expansion effort, which would have rezoned his storage warehouses for residential, office and community uses.

“The longer, larger implications are unclear because there was an anticipation that the City Planning Commission was not going to vote in favor of the proposal in any case,” Richard Lipsky, Mr. Sprayregen’s lobbyist, told The Observer. He said that Mr. Sprayregen would continue to pursue the proposal.