Victory — Far West Village Rezoning Plan To Be Presented in February!
 Following calls by GVSHP and fellow community groups, the Department of City Planning has announced that they will finally present the plan to change the outdated C6-1 zoning district covering six blocks of the Far West Village in February, as we had called upon them to do. GVSHP and community groups first began urging the city to change this zoning district two years ago, when it became clear that developers were seeking to exploit its outdated bonus for commercial and community facility development to build out-of-scale projects, including a proposed 100 ft. tall hotel (since dropped). Our community coalition staged letter-writing campaigns and held a very well-attended Town Hall calling for the change, and, after much stonewalling, this fall the city finally agreed to the zoning change we sought.
However, progress continued to be slow, leaving more and more time for developers to begin out-of-scale projects under the existing zoning. At the beginning of the year, we wrote to City Planning urging them to end this delay and present their plan no later than February, which they have now agreed to. The new zoning for the area, as suggested by GVSHP and community groups, will reduce the allowable size and height of new development, and eliminate the current incentive for commercial (such as hotel) and community facility (such as dormitory) development. Thank you to the Greenwich Village Community Task Force, the Perry Street Crusaders, the Perry Street Block Association, and all the other community groups and individuals who worked with us to push for moving this process ahead as quickly as possible.
The public presentation of the new zoning plan is currently scheduled to take place on Thursday, February 11 at 6:30 P.M., location TBD. The public approval process for the rezoning will take several months. GVSHP will provide further details as they become available.
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