Map of West Harlem rezoning area. Credit: DCP.

See below for update.

Council Member Jackson obtains compromise between City’s proposal and community concerns. On October 25, 2012, the City Council’s Land Use Committee approved a modified version of the Department of City Planning’s West Harlem Rezoning proposal. The proposal would impact 90 blocks generally bounded by West 155th Street to the north, West 126th Street to the south, Bradhurst Avenue to the east, and Riverside Drive to the west. The rezoning would generally replace the area’s majority R8 and R7-2 zoning with a contextual mix of R6A, R7A, R8, and R8A districts. The plan would also make portions of West Harlem eligible for the City’s Inclusionary Housing Program.

Manhattan Community Board 9 broadly supported the proposal, but expressed concern over a proposed R8A district on West 145th Street between Broadway and Amsterdam Avenue. The Community Board feared that existing federally subsidized, rent-regulated housing would be redeveloped, and urged the Planning Commission to modify that portion of the proposal to R7A. The City Planning Commission on September 5, 2012 approved the proposal without accepting the Community Board’s suggestion, leading Commissioner Michelle R. de la Uz to vote “No.” (See CityLand’s past coverage here). (read more…)

Proposed zoning map. Credit: DCP

Local community board generally supported 90-block rezoning, but requested that portion of West 145th Street be downzoned to protect existing HUD buildings. On October 3, 2012, the City Council’s Zoning & Franchises Subcommittee heard testimony on the Department of City Planning’s proposal to rezone 90 blocks in West Harlem. The rezoning would impact approximately 1,900 lots generally bounded by West 155th Street to the north, West 126th Street to the south, Bradhurst Avenue to the east, and Riverside Drive to the west. City Planning’s proposal seeks to protect the area’s existing residential character, create incentives for affordable housing development, encourage appropriate growth along retail corridors, and create opportunities for mixed-use development in the area’s manufacturing zone.

West Harlem is predominantly characterized by medium-density residential development, including three- to four-story rowhouses and larger five- to six-story apartment buildings. Taller residential buildings can be found on the blocks between Broadway and Riverside Drive. A major retail corridor with active residential use spans West 145th Street, while commercial overlays also cover portions of Broadway and Amsterdam Avenue. A small manufacturing area located in the southernmost tip of the rezoning area includes the partially demolished former Taystee Cake Factory complex, the Mink Building, and Metropolitan Transit Authority facilities.

(read more…)

Credit: The Department of City Planning

City Planning Commission certified 140-block Bed-Stuy North Rezoning and 90-block West Harlem Rezoning: included in the Brooklyn proposal is a text amendment that would also apply Citywide and to areas of the Bronx. At City Planning Commission’s review session on May 7, 2012, the Commission certified the Department of City Planning’s contextual rezoning proposal for the northern half of Brooklyn’s Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood. The Bedford-Stuyvesant North Rezoning plan would impact a 140-block area generally bounded by Flushing Avenue to the north, Quincy Street to the south, Broadway to the east, and Classon and Franklin Avenues to the west. The proposal was requested by Brooklyn Community Board 3 and local elected officials after the City rezoned the southern half of the neighborhood in 2007. (read CityLand’s coverage here).

Bedford-Stuyvesant is a residential neighborhood characterized by late 19th- and early 20th-century rowhouses, small and medium-sized apartment buildings, and several large, tower-in-the-park NYCHA (read more…)

Partitioned Metropolitan Opera warehouse on West 129th Street in Manhattan. Photo: CityLand.

Stringer opposed, arguing that the proposal conflicted with the City’s broader efforts to rezone the West Harlem area. The City Council approved West 129th Street Realty LLC’s plan to rezone one block in West Harlem from R7-2 and M1-1 to R7A. The block is bounded by West 130th and West 129th Streets, and Convent and Amsterdam Avenues. The block’s eastern and western portions along Convent and Amsterdam Avenues are developed with four- and five-story apartment buildings and were previously zoned R7-2. The mid-block portion is developed with a one-story warehouse and a two-story parking garage and was zoned M1-1. The developer owns a 20,000 sq.ft. portion of the warehouse site, which is slated for redevelopment.

In 2005, the developer purchased the eastern two-thirds of the former storage warehouse used by the Metropolitan Opera at 497 West 129th Street, which it then partitioned. The site’s M1-1 zoning prohibited residential uses, and the developer requested the rezoning to facilitate the development of two residential buildings, one eight stories and the second nine. The two buildings will be connected by an interior courtyard, with the eight-story building fronting West 129th Street, and the nine-story building fronting West 130th Street. The project will create approximately 90 rental units and 65 accessory parking spaces. The Metropolitan Opera will continue to use its portion of the warehouse for storage. (read more…)