A proposed nine-story, 130-unit residential building shows West Harlem residents what their low-rise neighborhood could look like without new land use rules.
Still reeling from Columbia University’s approved expansion into West Harlem, local residents are awaiting specifics on a city rezoning proposal seeking to preserve neighborhood character in about 30 blocks of Harlem while creating more affordable housing.
The area stretches from 126th Street to 155th Street, between Riverside Drive and the district’s eastern borders of St. Nicholas, Bradhurst and Edgecombe Avenues. Without rezoning, residents fear they could face overdevelopment and even pricier rents.
The Department of City Planning and Community Board 9 are weighing issues like how to protect residential brownstone areas and enliven commercial arteries such as 145th Street and Broadway. When they’ve reached agreement, a formal land review could begin early next year, say city planners. But there’s no firm deadline, Edwin Marshall, the planning’s department’s team leader for upper Manhattan, said at a September meeting. “What’s most important is to get consensus and agreement,” he said. The city is scheduled to present its latest rezoning draft at the committee’s meeting on Tuesday.
The neighborhood hasn’t been rezoned since 1961, but Columbia University’s disputed expansion into the Manhattanville neighborhood, approved by the City Council in December 2007, highlighted the need for changes. Public officials and residents say the current code allows large-scale construction that could dwarf neighborhood buildings and bring an influx of affluent tenants and homeowners who could price locals out of the market.
To avoid that, the plan stiffens zoning throughout residential neighborhoods and offers incentives for more affordable housing along commercial corridors like Broadway, Amsterdam and 145th Street. Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer first proposed the rezoning in April 2007, and the city’s planning department joined the effort that September. Stringer’s office, which declined to comment, also recommended that the planning commission reject the current application for the new nine-story building, proposed for the block between West 129th and 130th Streets, Amsterdam and Convent Avenues.
The commission will vote on the application by November 9 with City Council review starting soon after, according to a planning spokesperson. Lawyers representing the developers did not return phone calls.
Community Board 9 called rezoning an “unparalleled boon” but urged more fine-tuning, such as block-by-block rules on height and bulk. To generate more business on major arteries like Broadway and Amsterdam, the board has recommended allowing commercial activity on some second floors and suggested bonuses for markets selling fresh produce, bakeries or restaurants.
“We’re still not finished yet. We still have much more to do,” said Yvonne Stennett, co-chair of the Land Use and Zoning Committee said during its September meeting.
Community Board Chair Patricia Jones did not respond to requests for comment.
Planning consultant Mercedes Narciso, who now teaches at Pratt Institute, worked with the board as it created its long-term vision for the neighborhood, known as a 197-a Plan. To avoid the area’s being overshadowed by outsized dorms, hospitals or schools that threaten the neighborhood’s character, the rezoning aimed to preserve its historic fabric and include recommendations for affordable housing, according to Narciso. With Columbia and City College as neighbors, residents are “concerned that educational institutions will change drastically the character of the neighborhood,” she said. Rezoning “will put some control on the scale of the neighborhood,” she added.
Neighborhood real estate agents support rezoning, some saying it could help guard against more displacement. Marcus Soler, who owns Soler Realty NYC on Hamilton Place, said residents were already being priced out as the area developed. “If the rents keep going up, I won’t be able to keep my business here,” he said.
Community Board members— giving their own opinion and not speaking on behalf of the board—said they still saw many unanswered questions in the proposal. Walter South, co-chair of the board’s landmark and preservation committee, believed the proposal should have included an area surrounding Tiemann Place, below 125th Street, where a stretch of stores below an elevated subway stop provides commercial activity that might be lost without zoning it to encourage businesses. “The zoning presented by the city is not nuanced enough,” said South.
Meanwhile, board member Tamara Gayer pointed out that rezoning affects a wide range of people, from those already almost priced out of the area to more affluent brownstoners looking to protect property values. She thinks residents will pay attention as the process unfolds.
“We’ll see what they come back with. It’s a dialogue,” she said.
