Far West Village Rezoning Effort

2009-11-20T22:07:00.001-05:00

WOW! Progress from our elected officials!

After 18 months of hard work by community groups and the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, the Department of City Planning finally agreed on Monday to the rezoning of the Far West Village that we've been pushing for over the past 18 months.

This would never have happened without the residents of our great neighborhood coming together at meetings, signing petitions, and sending letters to show our Community Board 2 and elected officials how strongly the community was united behind the rezoning effort.

Andrew Berman and his staff at the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation deserve a huge vote of thanks from us for providing invaluable guidance, expertise, and support each step of the way. GVSHP has provided answers to some common questions as to what this City Planning decision means. See http://www.gvshp.org/_gvshp/preservation/fwv/fwv-11-20-09.htm

You’ll see that there are public hearings coming up and an environmental assessment still to be done. We'll let residents know when further action is needed.

Thanks for all the hard work everyone has done to get us this far.

2009-09-02T17:09:00.010-04:00

September 2, 2009

Public Support from Our Elected Officials — At last!

It’s taken 16 months but the power of the community has prevailed!

Your emails, phone calls, and letters have made a difference.

We just received this letter today from our elected representatives. It offers their first upfront public support for our community groups’ call to rezone the C6-1 district along Washington Street in the Far West Village. Here’s the critical language in their letter to City Planning:

“We wish to make clear that, like these organizations and CB2, we believe that this district should be rezoned to C1-6A or another zoning district that would preserve the character of this low-scale, predominantly residential, historic neighborhood and be complementary with the adjacent Far West Village rezoning enacted in 2005.”

Thanks to all of you for your efforts to date. And thanks to our elected officials for coming out and supporting our call for rezoning this area of the Far West Village.

We now await the study from City Planning. Check back here to learn the latest.

Please click HERE to see the complete letter from the Elected Officials.

Help Stop Commercial Overdevelopment of the Far West Village!

2009-08-11T19:45:00.002-04:00

Your continued support is needed to get a desperately-needed rezoning in the Far West Village.

For 16 months community groups have been asking the city to get rid of a ‘C6-1’ zone in the Far West Village which encourages oversized hotel and dorm development. We have gotten no commitment from the city to act, and no commitment from any of our local elected officials to support this rezoning. Time is running out!

But you can help. Please e-mail our local elected officials and tell them to support the community’s request for a change to the C6-1 zone in the Far West Village. Send the following message:

Dear Speaker Quinn, Borough President Stringer, Congressman Nadler, State Senator Duane, Assemblymember Glick,

I strongly urge you to support the community’s call for a change to the C6-1 zone in the Far West Village. This outdated zoning promotes out-of-scale commercial and community facility development in this low-scale, predominantly residential, historic neighborhood.

I am aware that you have been in touch with the City about the community’s request, but that you also have not yet taken a position on that request. This is something the community has been calling for for over 16 months. We need the support of elected officials like you NOW for this effort.

Sincerely,

NAME

ADDRESS

Send it to:

Speaker Quinn – http://council.nyc.gov/d3/html/members/home.shtml,

and send copy to NIsaacs@council.nyc.gov and KSeely@council.nyc.gov.

Borough President Stringer – bp@manhattanbp.org, smyers@manhattanbp.org, and SKhan@manhattanbp.org.

Congressman Nadler – http://www.house.gov/nadler/emailform.shtml, and send a copy to Erin.Drinkwater@mail.house.gov.

State Senator Duane – duane@senate.state.ny.us, laura@tomduane.com, and crystal@tomduane.com

Assemblymember Glick – glickd@assembly.state.ny.us and bordenm@assembly.state.ny.us.

For more information about the effort to rezone the C6-1 zone in the Far West Village, see http://farwestrezoning.blogspot.com/ and http://www.gvshp.org/FWVZoning.htm.

2009-05-10T14:31:00.006-04:00

UPDATE: There's been good progress on our fight for re-zoning - On April 23, Community Board 2 unanimously passed a resolution in support of re-zoning the C6-1 Zone in the Far West Village.

Below is the text from the CB2 letter to Amanda Burden, Chair of the City Planning Commission, requesting that CPC initiate the re-zoning process.

This is great progress, but we need to keep the pressure on, so City Planning knows that Village residents fully support re-zoning.

We want more people to sign the online petition at http://gopetition.com/petitions/preserve-the-far-west-village.html.

We have 323 signatures online as of today - and 317 signatures were collected at the Perry Street Fair on Saturday. We were heartened by the incredible support for our efforts from residents of the Village and all five boroughs as they passed and chatted with us at the table. It took seven hours of effort from Maxine, Alice, and Geoffrey, who all were buoyed by the energy of the signers and had great fun as well. With the online signatures, that's 640 total! Let's make it 1000 by the end of May!

CB2 letter to Amanda Burden, Chair of the City Planning Commission:

April 27, 2009

Amanda Burden, Chair

City Planning Commission

22 Reade Street

New York, New York 10007

Dear Chair Burden:

At its Full Board meeting on April 23, 2009, Community Board #2, Manhattan (CB#2, Man.) adopted the following resolution:

RESOLUTION ON REQUEST BY COMMUNITY BOARD 2, MANHATTAN, TO INITIATE A RE-ZONING OF THE C6-1 ZONE IN THE FAR WEST VILLAGE

Whereas, CB#2, Man. and the NYC Department of City Planning, met on April 1, 2009, with representatives from the local elected officials at City Planning’s suggestion to discuss the zoning for the portion of the Far West Village bounded by West 12th Street to the north, West 10th Street to the south, Washington Street to the west, and Greenwich Street to the east, that is currently zoned C6-1; and

Whereas, worked together, starting in 2005 to implement a re-zoning of portions of the Far West Village in order to ensure that future development in this neighborhood would be appropriate to its historic, low-scale, residential character; and

Whereas, CB#2, Man. thanks the NYC Department of City Planning for their careful and thoughtful approach to planning that honors the history and stability of this community; and

Whereas that re-zoning, regretfully, neglected to include a sliver of properties, roughly bounded by West 12th Street to the north, West 10th Street to the south, Washington Street to the west, and Greenwich Street to the east that are currently zoned C6-1; and

Whereas, C6-1 zoning allows a commercial FAR of 6, a Community Facility bonus to 6.5, and a residential FAR of 3.44; and

Whereas, this imbalance of FAR between commercial and residential uses, encourages out of scale and inappropriate commercial development, such as hotels, dorms and office buildings, in an overwhelmingly quiet residential neighborhood; and

Whereas, CB#2, Man. believes that it is imperative that this C6-1 district be re-zoned to C1-6A, a zoning designation that would allow a commercial FAR of 2, a Community Facility bonus to 4, and a residential FAR of 4, or such other appropriate re-zoning that would preserve the character of the neighborhood and conform with the intentions of the 2005 re-zoning; and

Whereas, such a re-zoning would support the intentions of the 2005 re-zoning, by discouraging inappropriate commercial development and, because it is contextual, define the same height limitations for the street wall and set-backs that are in place for the properties immediately to the west, limits that are in keeping with the character of this historic and stable residential neighborhood; and

Whereas this request has the complete support of the community and CB2 Manhattan; and

Whereas, because of the imbalance in the zoning, an as of right project is coming before CB#2, Man. and the NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission that will negatively impact the future of this area, and would negate the intent and benefits of the 2005 re-zoning; and

Whereas, There have been meetings in the community for about a year that demonstrate strong support.

Therefore Be It Resolved, that CB#2, Man., urgently requests that the NYC Department of City Planning to immediately initiate a re-zoning of the area in the Far West Village, roughly bounded by West 12th Street to the north, West 10th Street to the south, Washington Street to the west, and Greenwich Street to the east, from C6-1 to C1-6A, or such other appropriate re-zoning that would preserve the character of the neighborhood and conform with the intentions of the 2005 re-zoning.

Vote: Unanimous, with 40 Board members in favor.

Please advise us of any decision or action taken in response to this resolution.

Sincerely,

Brad Hoylman, Chair David Reck, Chair

Community Board #2, Zoning and Housing Committee Community Board #2, Manhattan

cc: Hon. Jerrold Nadler, Congressman

Hon. Thomas Duane, NY State Senator

Hon. Deborah Glick, Assembly Member

Hon. Scott Stringer, Man. Borough President

Hon. Alan Jay Gerson, Council Member

Hon. Rosie Mendez, Council Member

Hon. Christine Quinn, Council Speaker

Angelica Crane, Community Board Liaison, Man. Borough President

Lolita Jackson, Manhattan Director, CAU

Lorna Edwards, Land Use Review Unit, Dept. of City Planning

Vivian Awner, Community Board Liaison, Dept. of City Planning

Jeff Mulligan, Executive Director, Board of Standards & Appeals

Applicant

Help Stop Commercial Overdevelopment of the Far West Village!

2009-03-25T08:26:00.015-04:00

Did you know that the heart of the Far West Village is still zoned to encourage large commercial buildings? This means that a 10 storey Hotel could pop up at any minute along our beautiful residential streets, bringing with it noise, traffic and garbage! Please work with us to stop this madness and help get this precious area re-zoned. Your support matters greatly.

On April 6th, more than 150 people tuned out for a community meeting on a much-needed rezoning in the Far West Village sponsored by the Far West Rezoning coalition. At the meeting, members of the coalition, GVSHP and community leaders presented the case that:

The C6-1 district is unique in the Far West Village in encouraging oversized commercial development (as evidenced by a recent as-of-right plan for a nearly 100 ft. tall hotel)
There are more than a dozen potential development sites in this C6-1 district that could be similarly developed in the future (in spite of landmark protections), thus making a rezoning absolutely essential
A rezoning like the one GVSHP helped secure nearby in 2005 would much better protect the character of the neighborhood (GVSHP and other community groups have been calling for such a change for over a year)

To see the complete summary of the presentation, CLICK HERE.

There was also progress to report. After a year of non-responsiveness from City Planning (which must approve or initiate any rezoning), the city agency is now finally reviewing and considering this rezoning request. Community Board #2 agreed to consider a resolution in support of the proposed changes in its Zoning Committee on April 16th. And all local elected officials sent representatives to listen to the concerns and opinions presented at the meeting, as they follow up on a recent meeting with City Planning on this issue.

GVSHP and community groups also mapped out a plan of action to keep the pressure on to help secure this needed zoning change, including possible future public demonstrations, if the City does not agree to move a rezoning forward.

HOW TO HELP:

Sign the on-line petition in support of the much-needed rezoning of the C6-1 zone in the Far West Village, and forward it to your friends, family, and neighbors and ask them to do the same.

If you were not able to attend last night's community meeting and fill out a letter to City Planning in support of rezoning, do so on-line; CLICK HERE.

For more information on the effort to rezone the Far West Village, CLICK HERE.

SEND US YOUR LETTERS, WE'LL POST THEM -

(farwestrezoning@gmail.com or click below and post yourself.)

LETTER FROM THE WEST 12th STREET BLOCK ASSOCIATION:

Hon. Amanda Burden
Chair, NYC Planning Commission
22 Reade St.
NYC 10007

3/30/09

Re: C6-1 Zone in the Far West Village

Dear Chair Burden:

Although the West 12^th Street Block Association covers the blocks between Fifth and Seventh Avenues, we are nevertheless concerned about what goes on beyond our boundaries. Inappropriate zoning that allows overly large buildings in the far west Village, between Tenth and Twelfth Streets, is damaging to the historical district and, indeed, to the entire Village.

Accordingly, we are supporting the request of the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation and other groups to rezone these blocks so as to make them compatible with the surrounding areas.

We urge you to consider this change. Many thanks.

Sincerely,

Carol Greitzer and Marguerite Martin, Co-Chairs