Lower East Side Rezoning Adopted by the NY City Council on Nov. 19th

A community initiated rezoning plan for the Lower East Side was adopted on Nov. 19th by the NY City Council after several years of planning, and an 8 months Uniform Land Use Review (ULURP) process.

Despite a bizarre effort by Chinatown residents to derail a plan for a neighborhood adjacent to their own (?), the ULURP was given unanimous support by Community Board 3, the City Planning Commission and the City Council. This strong support was also a strong repudiation of the misguided race-baiting tactics of the Chinese Staff and Workers Association (CSWA) and the Coalition to Preserve Chinatown, the two organizations that led the opposition.

The rezoning plan was admittedly not perfect, as no plan ever is. Members of the Lower East Side Coalition for Accountable Zoning (LESCAZ), a diverse coalition of progressive low income tenants rights groups, housing preservations and low income housing developers supported the plan, but with some reservations about the increased as of right FAR in the new inclusionary zones, the slight upzoning (from 3.44 to 4.0) throughout much of the rezoning area, and the fact that inclusionary zoning was not mandatory. Tenants rights advocates wanted HPD to include anti-harassment and anti-demolition provisions in the plan and a commitment to at least 700 new low income housing units on city-owned sites. HPD made minor concessions, and advocates plan to continue pushing for improvements to the rezoning over time.

Still, height caps of 80 and 120 feet will help preserve the unique contextual low-rise characer of the community, and the inclusionary zoning along the avenues is likely to result in over 400 low income housing units over the next decade. The Chinatown opponents made many dubious arguments about the plan making displacement pressures worse in Chinatown when the reality is that the displacement pressures are already severe. The fear that hotels and luxury housing will overwhelm Chinatown is unsubstantiated. In fact, the downturn in the construction industry, which may last for several years, makes this arguments already severely outdated.

Unfortunately, the media latched onto the racism angle and progressives who supported the plan were undermined in efforts to get a better plan as they had to become more vocal of their defense of an imperfect plan.