As Village Preservation continues to monitor implementation of the 2021 SoHo/NoHo rezoning (which nearly four years out hasn’t produced a single unit of housing and has destroyed more affordable housing than it’s created), we’ve uncovered yet another lie the City told us in promoting this false and destructive plan. We were told that all new affordable housing required as part of new residential developments would always be fully integrated within new buildings, so residents of “affordable” units would live side by side with wealthier market-rate residents in the same building. No “poor doors,” as had been used before separating “affordable” units from market rate ones, would be allowed. 

Instead, we’ve uncovered that, rather than “poor doors,” a developer of what could be the first residential development in the rezoning area intends to create a “poor building,” whereby all the required affordable units are segregated into an entirely separate building, with another fully luxury, market-rate building nearby. The City repeatedly claimed that while technically allowable under the rezoning, this would never happen. Now it’s happening.

This is just one in a long series of flawed promises and lies that have been the basis of the SoHo/NoHo rezoning, as well as many other rezonings the City has either initiated or approved. Village Preservation will continue to expose those lies and hold city leaders to account. 

TO HELP: