Two zoning meetings about the Lower East Side
From Rob Hollander, LES Residents for Responsible Development
http://savethelowereastside.blogspot.com/
Friends and neighbors,
The CB Zoning Task Force meets again this Tuesday, October 9, 6:30pm at University Settlement, 184 Eldridge Street between Rivington & Delancey. Unfortunately, I can’t attend.
The archdiocese, word has it, intends to fight the rezoning tooth and nail. They want to keep the community facility bonus that allows huge dormitories here so they can cash in on selling their churches.
This should worry us all. While the rezoning plan is not perfect, it is far better than no zoning, especially south of Houston, which is being overrun with hotel development.
I want to clarify my view on this rezoning. People like simple solutions, easy targets, good guys vs bad guys. I don’t want to encourage such misapprehensions. I want to be clear first that the issues I’ve raised about this rezoning do not bear on the CB chair, David McWater.
In fact, there would be no preservation rezoning without him. He has managed not only to get the city to endorse this largely preservationist zoning, but he accomplished this with unprecedented speed. It was also under his guidance that the south-of-Houston area was included in the preservation zoning, and that’s without question the best thing in the plan.
Moreover, IZ upzoning, to which many object, cannot be laid at McWater’s feet: the city administration requires upzoning to accompany new affordable housing in its Inclusionary Zoning program. This is not a dilemma unique to this community. It’s happening throughout the city. Even highly principled advocates for new affordable housing have been forced to choose between upzoning for 80% market-rate development or no new affordable housing.
The IZ program in NYC is just a back door to overdevelopment. McWater, in accommodating the strong, organized, vocal and, in my opinion, principled community advocates for new affordable housing, tried his best to minimize the impact of that upzoning by restricting it to Houston and Delancey. I’d prefer no upzoning, but until preservationist voices are stronger, more vocal and more present, it won’t matter what I prefer. If people opposed to glass & steel no-street-life-no-community gentrification don’t speak out louder, they cannot expect to be served.
There is also a Bowery community meeting coming up Thursday, 6:30 at 10 Stanton Street — a chance to speak out. I have yet to hear a single cogent, valid argument against publicly asking DCP to go on public record with its intentions regarding the Bowery. If DCP refuses to answer publicly a public question, well, that’s an admission of intent to give the Bowery to the hotels. I hope someone will bring this up, because I can’t attend this meeting either.
The CB should not relieve DCP of its responsibility for the Bowery. Place the public burden on DCP to state its intentions. Don’t let them hide from the public!
Rob
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