Eighty-block rezoning encourages residential development along Webster Avenue and limits out-of-character development in Norwood and Bedford Park neighborhoods. On March 23, 2011, the City Council approved the Department of City Planning’s 80-block Webster Avenue/Bedford Park/Norwood Rezoning plan. The rezoning affected thirteen blocks along Webster Avenue between 193rd and 211th Streets and the surrounding residential side streets of Bedford Park and Norwood. Webster Avenue is characterized by low-rise buildings, heavy commercial uses, parking lots, and vacant lots. Bedford Park and Norwood are developed with a mix of attached, semi-detached, and detached homes, along with five- and seven-story apartment buildings.

The plan replaced the majority of Webster Avenue’s C8-2 zoning with residential districts and commercial overlays to encourage mid-rise residential development and promote new commercial uses. The City’s Inclusionary Housing Program will now apply along sections of Webster Avenue. Bedford Park and Norwood’s R7-1 zoning was replaced with residential districts that include height limits to ensure that future development matches existing scale. (more…)

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. (more…)