Home : Advocacy : South Village : Latest News : 1/13/20

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Big SoHo/NoHo Meeting This Wednesday, Jan. 15 at 6:30pm   Please attend an important Community Board 2 Land Use Committee hearing and discussion of the priorities and recommendations from the recently- released Envision SoHo/NoHo: A Summary of Findings and Recommendations report. Representatives of the plan sponsors — the City, Borough President Gale Brewer, and Councilmember Margaret Chin — will be on hand to answer questions. Meeting begins at 6:30pm this Wednesday at the Sheen Center, 18 Bleecker Street (Mott/Elizabeth Streets).   The packed house at last week’s SoHo/NoHo hearing featured many residents echoing our call for no upzoning and no oversized retail   This is an important opportunity to guide the community board in its feedback to the plan sponsors about its recommendations and the future of these historic neighborhoods. It’s critical that we be there to advocate for protecting the character of these neighborhoods, as forces inside and outside city government, including the real estate industry, are lobbying for upzonings (a large increase in the allowable size of new development in the area), allowances for oversized retail, and changes to the rules governing residences in the neighborhood that could weaken protections for longtime artist residents.    All of these buildings (l. to r.: 10 Sullivan, the James Hotel, the Mondrian SoHo, and 60 Thompson) – the tallest in SoHo and NoHo --  were built under the current zoning limits for these neighborhoods. Upzoning would lift those limits and allow for even larger buildings—some are calling for 2.5 X the size of what current rules allow!   TO HELP:   Attend the meeting and speak up for the following: No upzoning anywhere in the neighborhood (upzoning advocates, including the Department of City Planning, falsely claim that upzonings are necessary in order to create affordable housing; they are not) No increase in the allowable size of retail beyond the 10,000 sq. ft. limit, to protect against more big-box mega-chain stores. Ensuring that any adjustments to the rules governing residential uses do not in any way diminish the protections for artists’ live-work spaces. Write City Officials Urging Them to Maintain Limits for the Size of New Development and New Retail in SoHo/NoHo — CLICK HERE

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Home : Advocacy : South Village : Latest News : 1/13/20