Huge Turnout at City’s Far West Village Rezoning Hearing Sends Clear Message: “Downzone without Delay, without Rollbacks, and without Carve-outs!”
A HUGE turnout of over 100 residents, supporters and preservationists yesterday at the City Planning Commission’s hearing on the proposed rezoning of the Far West Village sent a loud and clear message: move ahead with the rezoning as soon as possible, but DO NOT roll back the restrictions in any way, and work with us to reduce the size of the developments planned for the Whitehall Storage and Superior Ink sites. For a copy of GVSHP’s complete submission to the City Planning Commission today, CLICK HERE.
Thank you to everyone who came, and special thank you to State Senator Tom Duane, who personally testified today to call for these same measures, and Assembly Member Deborah Glick, whose representative did the same.
This message is critical now because several developers are seeking to “beat the clock” and build before the new zoning is passed, and others are seeking to “roll back” portions of the zoning plan to exempt them from the downzoning. And even though the City Planning Commission may have “locked in” the carve outs for the Whitehall Storage and Superior Ink sites into the plan, we must push them to find any way possible to require or convince these developers to further reduce the size of their developments.
What Can You Do To Help?:
Write to the Commission urging a vote without rollbacks right away, and asking that they help reduce the size of the Superior Ink and Whitehall developments. The Commission’s next opportunity to vote is on September 28th, so we must push them before then.
We must also keep fighting for the City to speed up and expand its landmarking plan for the Far West Village;only with a comprehensive downzoning AND landmarking plan can we hope to preserve this neighborhood. Several endangered buildings like the Superior Ink building, the Diane von Furstenberg building (389 West 12th Street), and the two low-rise buildings at 139 and 143 Charles/689 Washington Street are still not included in the City’s current landmark plan, and even those which are included could be demolished or altered if the City doesn’t speed up its designation process (now slated to take about 9 months).
Additionally, the City PROMISED to calendar the first of the proposed landmark extensions in the Far West Village this summer; with summer almost over, we need to push them to keep their commitments and TAKE ACTION TO PRESERVE OUR NEIGHBORHOOD!
What Can You Do Now To Help?:
Write to the Landmarks Preservation Commission right away, urging that they expand and expedite their landmark plan for the Far West Village, ESPECIALLY in light of their promise to begin work on it this summer.
Next: 09/19/05
Previous: 05/17/05
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