GVSHP | Preservation | Hudson Square North Rezoning

PRESERVATION UPDATE

from the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation

April 17, 2008

On Wednesday the 23rd at 10 am, the City Planning Commission will hold a hearing on a request by a developer to rezone five blocks between Barrow and Clarkson Street west of Husdson Street to allow additional kinds of development prohibited under the current zoning. GVSHP urges you to join us in opposing this developer-driven rezoning by testifying against it at the hearing and/or writing to the Commission in opposition. The rezoning must be approved by the City Planning Commission and the City Council to be enacted.

Background: The City tried to pass this rezoning in 2002, but a coalition of neighborhood groups including GVSHP opposed it and it was defeated at the City Council. Now a developer has resurrected the rezoning, which would allow new residential development of up to 125 feet in height without any special permits or approvals, although it is currently prohibited by the existing zoning. GVSHP opposes the rezoning proposal because there is no apparent benefit to the community and definite potential drawbacks in terms of inappropriate development and displacement of existing businesses. Even worse, directly south of the proposed rezoning is a zoning district which includes the Trump SoHo Condo-Hotel and which allows 45-story buildings; GVSHP has urged the City to undertake a desperately-needed rezoning of this area, and they have thus far refused. To allow a developer-driven rezoning which is not wanted by the community while refusing to move on a community-requested rezoning in an adjacent area is especially problematic.

HOW TO HELP:

Come to the hearing to testify AGAINST the proposed "Hudson Square North" rezoning on Wednesday, April 23rd at the City Planning Commission, 22 Reade Street (btw. Broadway and Lafayette, 1 block north of Chambers Street). Arrive at 10 am (the actual hearing of this item may not start until later). Click here for sample testimony.
Write to the City Planning Commission to let them know that you oppose the developer-driven "Hudson Square North" rezoning and that you instead urge the Commission to move on rezoning the area to the south which actually needs it -- click here for a sample letter (same as the sample testimony).

To join GVSHP or support our preservation efforts, visit www.gvshp.org/membership.htm.

PRESERVATION UPDATE

from the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation

February 8, 2008

Community Board #2's Zoning Committee will hold a hearing and vote next Thursday the 14th at 6:30 pm on a developer-initiated proposal to rezone six blocks in the Far West Village between Barrow and Clarkson Street (see map at www.nyc.gov/html/dcp/pdf/zone/prop_sketchmaps/070575zmm_prop.pdf). The new zoning would allow residential development of as much as 125 feet high, in an area where residential development is currently prohibited. GVSHP opposes the proposal.

The rezoning was rejected once before in 2003, and is also opposed by several other neighborhood groups. There are critical unanswered questions about the impact the proposed rezoning and the development it might spur would have. At the same time that the City has released this developer-initiated rezoning proposal, they have refused to act upon long-standing community requests to rezone the Hudson Square area directly south of the proposed rezoning, to cap the allowable size and height of new development there. This is where Trump's SoHo 'Condo-Hotel' is located, and where the zoning allows 45-story buildings (unlike in the proposed rezoning area, which actually only allows much more modestly-scaled development).

To join GVSHP or support our preservation efforts, visit www.gvshp.org/membership.htm.