Proposal would establish new height and bulk regulations in northern portion of Special Tribeca Mixed Use District. On September 15, 2010, the City Planning Commission approved the Department of City Planning’s North Tribeca Rezoning proposal. The 25-block rezoning area is generally bounded by Canal Street to the north, Walker and Hubert Streets to the south, Broadway to the east, and West Street to the west. The plan would impact the Special Tribeca Mixed Use District’s A4, B1, and B2 subareas. It would replace the area’s existing M1-5 manufacturing zoning with a C6-2A commercial mixed-use district and create new special district subareas that better reflect northern Tribeca’s increasingly residential and commercial character.

North Tribeca was primarily a manufacturing district characterized by industrial and warehouse buildings, with limited residential uses. As the industrial base declined in the 1960s and 70s, vacant buildings attracted new residential and commercial tenants. The City in 1976 created the Special Tribeca Mixed Use District to establish zoning rules that permitted controlled residential uses to coexist with light manufacturing uses. The special district applied flexible residential use regulations to the southern portion of Tribeca, but prohibited new residential development in North Tribeca in order to preserve its industrial character. (more…)