The Elizabeth Street Garden has received a temporary stay of eviction as it fights to remain in its space in lower Manhattan. 

The city served the green space an eviction notice on Oct. 2, with a 14-day timeline to vacate the premises. The garden is appealing the eviction, with the next court date set for Oct. 30, a legal filing shows. 

The reprieve will remain in place until then, the garden said in an email newsletter Wednesday. 

In a statement provided to NY1, a City Hall spokesperson said the Adams administration was “not surprised or deterred” by the ruling, adding that it was “working to immediately resolve this last minute attempt to prevent the city from building the affordable housing and public green space this neighborhood deserves.” 

“This is nothing new — the well-heeled Elizabeth Street Garden has dug its heels for nearly a decade to prevent the city from building affordable housing for low-income and formerly homeless seniors,” the spokesperson said. “As the city faces a dire housing shortage and seniors are priced out of their homes, we will continue to fight for what is right — delivering housing and public green space on this city-owned site.”

The eponymous nonprofit that runs the Nolita sculpture garden has been in a legal fight to save the space since 2019, when the City Council signed off on a plan to transform it into affordable housing for seniors. 

The project would comprise of 123 apartments for older New Yorkers, including 37 for formerly homeless seniors, along with about 16,000 square feet of public garden space, according to its website. 

Garden director Joseph Reiver, whose father founded the space in the 1990s, previously told NY1 his nonprofit has proposed alternative sites for the city’s project, including one at a city-owned lot in the West Village.

Thousands of people have written to Mayor Eric Adams imploring him to save the garden, the nonprofit said, including celebrity supporters Martin Scorsese, Robert De Niro and Patti Smith. 

“The Garden is not only an oasis of greenspace within our city, but truly stands as a work of art,” Smith wrote in her letter, which is posted on the nonprofit’s website. “The effort to save it is reflective of a mass effort to preserve the natural and ever evolving character of New York City.”  

In a joint statement released Wednesday, however, Adams’ first deputy mayor, Maria Torres-Springer, and City Hall maintained the nonprofit’s proposals were “not serious.” 

“Any claims that Elizabeth Street Garden has identified serious options are incorrect. Each would require a new, full public process, bringing years of delay,” the statement said. “And as the Garden knows, even after public review concludes, there is always a danger that meritless litigation will further delay a project’s ability to get started and house New Yorkers.” 

“Regardless, we will continue to fight for the needs of seniors living in shelter,” the statement added.

Asked about the garden at a press briefing Tuesday, the mayor stood by the city’s housing plans for the site.

“Our seniors, when I do my senior town halls at the senior adult centers, I hear over and over their fear of not being able to afford to live in the city,” he said. “We have to house New Yorkers.”

“And the garden is a beautiful place,” he added. “But there’s a greater beauty to be able to house New Yorkers.”