City Planning Approves City-Initiated Special Garment Center District Rezoning

Zoning changes will bring many buildings into compliance and will lift manufacturing space preservation requirements. City officials step in to ensure garment manufacturing has a continuing place in the district. On September 26, 2018, the City Planning Commission held a public hearing on a proposed rezoning of the Special Garment Center District by the Department of City Planning, in conjunction with the New York City Economic Development Corporation (EDC). The Special Garment Center District encompasses … <Read More>


City Council Approves Inwood Neighborhood Rezoning Despite Residents Disapproval

On August 8, 2018, the City Council approved the Inwood Neighborhood Rezoning amidst resident concerns and disapproval. Mayor Bill de Blasio and Council Member Ydanis Rodriguez celebrated the rezoning approval. The rezoning was developed over the course of three years and affects 59 city blocks in the northern Manhattan neighborhood. The Economic Development Corporation, together with the Department of Housing Preservation and Development, the Department of Citywide Administrative Services, and the Department of Small Business … <Read More>


Community Board Recommends Zoning Protections For 14th Street Tech Hub Plan

Proposed zoning protections expect to preserve the residential area between Union Square and Astor Place from rapid developments. On February 28, 2018, Manhattan Community Board 3 unanimously voted to include proposed zoning protections for the 3rd/4th Avenue corridors between East 8th and 14th Streets in Manhattan. The corridors are one of the areas between Union Square and Astor Place that will be impacted by Mayor Bill de Blasio’s Tech Hub Plan. The protections … <Read More>


Comptroller Releases Report Critical of East New York Rezoning Plan

The report predicts that almost 50,000 residents of the affected Brooklyn neighborhoods would be priced out of neighborhood.  On December 3, 2015, Comptroller Scott M. Stringer issued a report—Mandatory Inclusionary Housing and the East New York Rezoning: An Analysis—on the proposed East New York rezoning plan’s effect on housing affordability in the East New York and Cypress Hills neighborhoods of Brooklyn.  The report claims while supply of housing units in the rezoned areas … <Read More>


Elected Officials, Community Groups Rally Against Mayor’s Citywide Rezoning Plan

Speakers argued the plan eliminates residential zoning protections with little affordable housing benefit.  On March 25, 2015 the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation held a press conference on the steps of City Hall to protest Mayor Bill de Blasio’s proposed citywide rezoning plan, “Zoning for Quality and Affordability”.  According to the Department of City Planning, the plan was created in response to zoning barriers identified by DCP and the Department of <Read More>


City Planning Commission Shrinks NYU’s Campus Expansion

Modifications include reducing building heights and below-grade space, and eliminating the proposed commercial overlay for the “Loft Blocks” and hotel use in the “Zipper Building.” On June 6, 2012, the City Planning Commission modified New York University’s proposal to expand its Greenwich Village campus. NYU’s proposal included developing four new buildings on two superblocks divided by Bleecker Street and bounded by West 3rd Street, West Houston Street, Mercer Street, and LaGuardia Place. The southern superblock … <Read More>