Op-Ed Rejects SoHo/NoHo Upzoning Arguments
| Village Preservation is continuing to work with allies including the SoHo Alliance and the Broadway Residents Coalition to push back on the campaign seeking to upzone SoHo and NoHo, led in part by groups with (often undisclosed) backing from developers with vested interests (and large development sites) in the neighborhood. These groups want to increase by 250% the allowable size of new development in these neighborhoods, where current rules already allow buildings of over 300 feet in height. To expose some of the motivations behind this campaign and debunk its arguments, Village Preservation recently wrote this op-ed, laying bare the fallacies behind the upzoning campaign and the dishonesty of many of its contentions. SoHo and NoHo are historic neighborhoods whose character, architecture, and scale contribute markedly to our city’s vitality. It’s critical that we let the Mayor, Borough President Brewer, Councilmember Chin, and other city officials who are considering changes to SoHo and NoHo’s zoning that while affordable housing is welcome in these neighborhoods, upzoning schemes that produce massive development largely of super-luxury housing, which these plans call for, are not: |
September 22, 2020