Council approves plan after HPD modifies affordable housing component. On December 18, 2008, the City Council modified the Department of Housing Preservation and Development’s plan to build a mixed-use, mixed-income development in the Melrose section of the Bronx. The award-winning project, known as Via Verde/The Green Way, integrates sustainable design with affordable cooperative and rental housing. 5 CityLand 169 (Dec. 2008).

At the Council’s Planning, Disposition & Concessions Subcommittee hearing, Council Member Maria del Carmen Arroyo praised the project, but expressed concern that the cooperatives’ current target, 110 percent of the area median income, would prevent many local residents from purchasing the units. Arroyo asked HPD to reconsider the income target before the Subcommittee voted. The vote was laid over, and when the Subcommittee reconvened on December 18th, Chair Daniel R. Garodnik announced that an agreement had been reached between HPD and Arroyo. They agreed that if additional subsidies were made available before July 31, 2010 or the commencement of marketing the project’s units, then up to 20 of the co-ops would be available for purchasers earning 80-100 percent of the area median income. Garodnik added that, contingent on market conditions and subject to HPD approval, the co-ops could be offered to those with incomes higher than 110 percent of area median income. The Subcommittee approved the modified plan, as did the Land Use Committee and the full Council. (read more…)