Please come to the preliminary presentations and public hearings tomorrow at Community Board #2 (Village, NoHo, SoHo, Little Italy) or Community Board #3 (East Village, Lower East Side) regarding the city’s ‘Zoning for Quality and Affordability’ plan.  The plan would loosen existing and future neighborhood zoning protections and lift height limits for new residential construction throughout the five boroughs, including those limits we fought hard for in the Far West Village (here and here) and are seeking in the South Village and the University Place/Broadway corridors.  The plan would also lift height limits for new construction along parts of West 13th and 14th Street, and encourage taller development in every other part of our neighborhood.  While the plan has been scaled back slightly recently in response to concerns raised by GVSHP and others, it would still do tremendous damage to the scale and character of our neighborhoods, while doing little or nothing to improve the quality or affordability of housing produced.

The Mayor’s plan would loosen height limits for new residential construction which in most cases would be purely market rate (i.e. luxury condo) developments. The plan would even further loosen the height limits for those developments in certain areas (such as parts of the East Village) which set aside a small fraction of units for affordable housing. The height increases would be as great as 31%. 

​Community Boards are the first place where the proposal will be heard; formal public hearings and votes by the Boards, Borough Presidents, City Planning Commission, and City Council will take place in the fall.

GVSHP has circulated a letter opposing the current plan which more than fifty neighborhood, civic, housing, and preservation groups from across the five boroughs have signed on to – read it here.  The letter will go to every Community Board, Borough President, and City Councilmember, as well as the City Planning Commission and the Mayor.  If your organization would like to sign on to the letter, please e-mail info@gvshp.org.  

You can find out more about the rezoning proposal here, here, here, and here.

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