Harlem Rezoning Plan Is Under Fire
January 24, 2008
A Harlem community group and the civil-rights advocate Norman Siegel today announced the start of campaign against the city’s proposed rezoning of 125th Street, arguing that the current proposal does not adequately protect the local community or the historic character of the commercial thoroughfare.
The city “had not sought the input of the actual community” when it put together the proposal, said Craig Schley, executive director of Voice of the Everyday People, or VOTE People, a Harlem-based advocacy group that is behind the campaign.
“We would have it scrapped and start all over,” Mr. Siegel said, adding that “125th Street is not an icon just for New York City but the world” and thus required special protection.
Amanda M. Burden, the chairwoman of the City Planning Commission, said in a statement, “The 125th Street rezoning proposal has been developed over the past four years involving over 200 meetings with 100 local stakeholder groups and community leaders.”
Zoning of the 125th Street area has not been much changed since 1961. The zoning changes proposed include allowing taller buildings, increasing the allowed density for homes, encouraging the support of artistic and cultural spaces and limiting the street presence of banks and other “non-active” businesses to encourage more foot traffic by pedestrians. The plan would affect the 24 square blocks between 124th and 126th Streets, from Broadway to Second Avenue.
But VOTE People says there are glaring inadequacies. Among the group’s demands:
- Buildings that have been submitted for landmarked status should be approved before any rezoning takes place. These include the dilapidated Victoria Theater, a once-elegant vaudeville house and movie palace; the old Blumstein’s department store, where Adam Clayton Powell organized the “Don’t Buy Where You Can’t Work” boycott for employment rights for blacks, and the Elks Lodge, home to the first African-American union.
- Development should involve construction companies that are either based in the community or employ people from the community.
- The plan should include income-targeted housing that will prevent local residents from being driven out by a higher-income population who can afford to pay market rates.
Rachaele Raynoff, a spokeswoman for the Department of City Planning, said that the plan includes protections for the traditional small scale of blocks filled with historic brownstones, as well as incentives for affordable housing. The rezoning would lead to considerable economic opportunities and result in the creation of an estimated 6,000 jobs, she said.
The group also called for restrictions on the use of eminent domain, under which private property can be purchased for public use, with Mr. Schley saying, “There is nothing blighted about 125th Street.” But Ms. Raynoff said that eminent domain is not at all part of the rezoning plan.
The proposal has already been reviewed by Community Boards 9, 10, and 11, which would be affected. Ms. Raynoff said that Community Boards 9 and 11 have already given conditional approval for the rezoning plan.
The next City Planning Commission hearing on the proposed rezoning will occur next Wednesday, Jan. 30, at 9:30 a.m. at the City College of New York, Aaron Davis Hall, 138 Convent Avenue at West 135th Street.
Source: NY Times
Related Articles
- Planning board OKs Harlem rezoning
- Lower East Side, Village Rezoning Plans Move Forward
- Harlem fights rezoning plan
- Dickens Stands as Key Hurdle To Rezoning of 125th Street
- Council Approves Rezoning Of 125th Street
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