What began as a pedestrian and vehicular traffic improvement plan with Federal funding, over 10 years ago, became the City’s largest and most aggressive streetbed plaza plan in a presentation by the Dept of Transportation to two Community Boards on Jan 6, 2011. Net, net to accommodate third party management and maintenance (sponsored) DOT and the Dept. of Design and Construction has re-designed this into enormous plazas where a variety of venues can re-coup the expense.
NoHo fought hard to correct a number of design flaws and needed modifications (See Jan 20 Handout) and at the last minute gained important additions to the CB#2 resolution.
You can get more background from January’s NoHo News