 Community Board #2 will be holding a public hearing on two critically important items: a proposal by GVSHP for a "contextual rezoning" of the South Village to help preserve neighborhood character, and a presentation by the Hudson River Park Trust regarding their plans to sell air rights from the park for development inland. We strongly urge you to attend!
GVSHP will be making a presentation at the public hearing of our proposal to rezone the South Village. The South Village’s current zoning encourages out-of-scale development and grants bonuses for the development of dormitories and other university facilities. While we have been successful in extending landmark protections to much of the South Village, a significant chunk of the neighborhood remains without landmark protections, and would greatly benefit from improved, “contextual” zoning. Even for those parts of the South Village now with landmark protections, appropriate zoning is still necessary to help protect the character of the neighborhood and to address issues such as use, height, and rear yard additions which landmarking sometimes does not. Through this public hearing we are hoping to get the Community Board to support this proposal to help it to move ahead and become reality. Please come to the public hearing to find out more and show support for this effort to preserve and protect the South Village.
 At the same meeting, the Hudson River Park Trust will be making a presentation regarding their plans to transfer air rights from the park to allow increased development in our neighborhood to generate revenue for the park, as allowed by recently-passed State legislation. It is important that you be there to hear the presentation and ask questions. We also urge you to join GVSHP in continuing to raise concerns about the potential for overdevelopment created by the transfer of air rights from the park, and in pushing the Trust and public officials to consider real limits on air rights transfers and alternatives to increasing the scale of development in our neighborhood which we have suggested.
This meeting will take place on Wednesday, February 12th starting at 6:30 pm. The location has been tentatively set for Little Red Schoolhouse, 272 Sixth Avenue (at Bleecker Street). We will confirm the location and send another reminder closer to the date.
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