Contextual rezoning would permit residential development along Webster Avenue and apply lower-density districts in Bedford Park and Norwood. On January 5, 2011, the City Planning Commission held a public hearing on the Department of City Planning’s Webster Avenue/Bedford Park/Norwood Rezoning plan in the Bronx. The 80-block proposal includes a thirteen-block section of the north/south Webster Avenue commercial corridor between 193rd and 211th Streets and the nearby residential side streets making up the Bedford Park and Norwood neighborhoods. The rezoning area is primarily within Bronx Community Board 7, which requested the plan, with only a small section of Webster Avenue above 211th Street within CB 12’s boundaries.

Webster Avenue’s C8-2 commercial zoning prohibits residential development and was applied when the IRT Third Avenue elevated train line ran above the block making heavier commercial uses more acceptable along the corridor. The Third Avenue El was demolished in 1973, but the zoning remained unchanged. This wide avenue is now characterized by auto repair shops, low-scale office uses, parking lots, vacant lots, and minimal pedestrian traffic. The rezoning would replace the majority of the C8-2 zoning with R7D, R7B, and C4-5D districts, and new commercial overlays to encourage higher density mixed-use development. Planning would apply the Inclusionary Housing Program to the new R7D and C4-5D districts. (read more…)