Yassky opposed over affordable housing issue. On March 9, 2005, the full Council approved the rezoning proposal for 129 lots in the South Bronx, converting it from manufacturing to mixed-use zoning that aims to further expand Bruckner Boulevard’s antique row and increase development of residential and livework uses. Initially scheduled for a vote on February 28, 2005, Council Member Maria del Carmen Arroyo, elected only 14 days prior by a special election, requested a vote delay on the Port Morris action to obtain time to address residents’ complaints that the rezoning would drive up rents and ultimately force them out.

Council Member Arroyo at the Subcommittee vote noted that she had met with the Department of Housing Preservation and Development, which had agreed to work with her office to educate Port Morris property owners on the City’s affordable housing funding mechanisms. Commenting that she was satisfied with this arrangement, Council Member Arroyo explained that the majority of the rezoned lots were privately owned, which limited the City’s ability to make immediate commitments to build affordable housing. (read more…)

129-lot area rezoned to permit residential, live-work and retail. The Planning Commission approved the proposed rezoning of a 129-lot area of Port Morris in the South Bronx that altered the area’s manufacturing zoning to mixed-use, facilitating increased live-work, residential and small commercial business development. The proposed new zoning builds on a 1997 zoning action that established the Port Morris Special Mixed-Use District – the city’s first mixed-use district – within a five-block area of Port Morris to permit diverse as-of-right uses, facilitate legalization of illegal conversions and support the continued expansion of Bruckner Boulevard’s string of antique shops. In the eight years following the 1997 rezoning, 185 new residential units were developed in the five-block area.

The new zoning would extend the mixed-use district to an 11- block area generally bounded by Park Avenue on the west, Willow Avenue on the east, the Major Deegan Expressway on the north and south to the Harlem River and the Harlem River Yards. The Department found that illegal conversions were prevalent in the area and over 40 percent of the lots were vacant, nderutilized or contained abandoned manufacturing structures. Three separate mixed-use zones (M1-2/R6A, M1-3/R8 and M1-5/R8) would be created to allow a large range of uses – residential, community facility and small commercial – while also restricting the height and size of development to more closely match the area’s existing scale. (read more…)