Earlier this month, Governor Hochul proposed eliminating the longstanding, reasonable, and necessary cap on the size of residential developments in New York State, which limits it to a floor area ratio of 12 (12 FAR). To give context, the over 1000-ft.-tall supertall towers of 57th Street’s “Billionaire’s Row” were built under zoning that only allows […]
We are thrilled to report that late Friday Mayor Adams vetoed a draconian, punitive measure we opposed introduced by (now former) City Councilmember Margaret Chin and approved in December by the City Council (including local Councilmembers Carlina Rivera and Corey Johnson). That measure would have imposed crippling fines on noncertified artist residents of certain types of […]
Hard-Fought-For Changes Will Blunt Some of Worst Elements of Plan, which Remains Giant Real Estate Giveaway Late yesterday the City Council voted 43 to 5 to approve the revised version of the Mayor’s SoHo/NoHo/Chinatown Upzoning + Displacement plan. As we previously reported, after months of fighting, the plan was modified to eliminate or lessen some […]
The full City Council appears poised to vote on the revised SoHo/NoHo/Chinatown Upzoning+Displacement Plan as soon as this Wednesday (full Council is currently scheduled to meet at 1:30 pm). It’s CRITICAL that City Councilmembers hear from you NOW that the revised plan — which would still promote grossly oversized development, the demolition of rent-regulated affordable […]
Yesterday the City Council’s Zoning Subcommittee and Land Use Committee each voted to approve a revised SoHo/NoHo/Chinatown Upzoning + Displacement Plan, with changes negotiated by Councilmembers Margaret Chin and Carlina Rivera, who urged their colleagues on the committee to support the plan. All but one did. In short, the revised plan is a bit less […]
After several delays, the City Council’s Zoning Subcommittee and Land Use Committee appear poised to vote on the massive SoHo/NoHo/Chinatown Upzoning + Displacement plan today starting at approximately 11:30 am. There has been no public word on what if any changes the Council may make to the plan, though we have good reason to believe […]
The vote on Mayor de Blasio’s SoHo/NoHo/Chinatown Upzoning+Displacement plan, originally expected this Thursday, has now been pushed back to next week, with the first vote in the Council’s Zoning Subcommittee as early as next Tuesday. While we understand changes to the plan are being considered by the Council, most if not all appear to be […]
The City Council’s Zoning Subcommittee will vote on the Mayor’s SoHo/NoHo/Chinatown Upzoning+Displacement plan as early as this Thursday, setting the stage for the final decision by the full City Council. It’s critical that Councilmembers hear from you NOW! Call your councilmember and tell them to vote NO. Tell them changes aren’t enough, the plan needs […]
The first (and in many ways most important) of three required votes in the City Council on the Mayor’s disastrous SoHo/NoHo/Chinatown Upzoning + Displacement plan may take place as early as next Thursday, December 2, when the City Council’s Zoning Subcommittee meets again. The subcommittee must vote on the plan, followed by the Land Use […]
The City Council’s sole public hearing on the massive and disastrous proposed upzoning of SoHo, NoHo, and parts of Chinatown will be Tuesday, November 9, in the Zoning Subcommittee of the City Council. The virtual meeting begins at 10 am, but this is the fourth and final agenda item, so this item’s hearing is not […]
This is the third part in a series about low- and moderate-income affordable housing tenants in the rezoning area put at risk of displacement by de Blasio’s rezoning. If you would like us to profile your story, please contact us: info@gvshp.org The parts of SoHo, NoHo, and Chinatown that Mayor de Blasio wants to rezone […]
Some important updates on the SoHo/NoHo rezoning fight: Opponents Swamp Supporters at Public Hearing: Around 100 people testified at yesterday’s City Planning Commission public hearing, even though it was held just prior to the Labor Day weekend and as the city was still reeling from the devastation of Hurricane Ida, showing this administration’s contempt for […]
Virtual and In-Person Testimony Allowed Borough President Holds Five-Hour Public Hearing, Withholds Recommendation Opponents Including Incoming and Past Councilmembers Urge Rejection The City Planning Commission will hold its sole public hearing on the massive SoHo/NoHo Upzoning plan this Thursday beginning at 10 am. Virtual and in-person testimony at 120 Broadway’s basement concourse hearing room will […]
A plan that does not do what it purports to do is a bad plan. A plan that, on top of that, does the opposite of what it purports to do is a very bad plan. And by these measures, Mayor de Blasio’s SoHo/NoHo/Chinatown upzoning is a very bad plan indeed. Over the past several […]
The City has dangled the promise of affordable housing in SoHo/NoHo/Chinatown before the public to give a progressive veneer to the massive handout that De Blasio’s upzoning plan makes available to developers, and to draw attention away from the likely demolition of existing affordable housing that this will effect. These promises, however, are unlikely to […]
De Blasio wants to fool the public into believing that his plan for rezoning SoHo/NoHo/Chinatown will diversify incomes and increase affordability in those neighborhoods. The opposite will in fact be true — his plan will likely reduce the existing affordable housing stock, and produce very little new affordable housing. And even if it does, the […]
This is the second part in a series about low- and moderate-income affordable housing tenants in the rezoning area put at risk of displacement by de Blasio’s rezoning. If you would like us to profile your story, please contact us: info@gvshp.org The parts of SoHo, NoHo, and Chinatown that Mayor de Blasio wants to rezone […]
This is the first part in a series about low- and moderate-income rent regulated tenants in the rezoning area the de Blasio rezoning puts at risk of displacement. If you have a similar story that you would like us to profile, please contact us: info@gvshp.org The parts of SoHo, NoHo, and Chinatown that Mayor de […]
Last week, the City ‘certified,‘ or issued its final proposal for the massive upzoning of SoHo, NoHo, and parts of Chinatown. The voluminous documents contained numerous inaccuracies, falsehoods, and mischaracterizations, designed to sell this obscene real estate giveaway to the Mayor’s real estate benefactors as a boon to social justice and equity. But if you […]
The newly-released study by Village Preservation shows that the City’s SoHo/NoHo Rezoning Plan, which includes part of Chinatown, will make the area richer, whiter, and more expensive to live in than now, increase demolition pressures on existing rent regulated units, and potentially destroy more affordable housing than it creates. The city also does not accurately represent […]
An abridged version of this piece appeared as an op-ed in the January 23, 2020 edition of AM-Metro NY. A recent report issued on behalf of the NYC Department of City Planning, the Manhattan Borough President, and City Councilmember Margaret Chin called for seeking opportunities to create affordable housing in SoHo and NoHo, and to […]
Scrolling through the NYC Department of City Planning website, it is easy to get lost amidst the zoning texts and maps and terms. But, as we come to realize from time to time – when one of our favorite businesses is replaced with a vacant storefront, or a luxury condominium building goes up across the […]
On December 15, 2016, the City Council approved a zoning change for the St. John’s Terminal site at West and Houston Streets that included a series of neighborhood protections and mitigations that GVSHP demanded. These included an agreement with the City for landmarking the final phase of GVSHP’s proposed South Village Historic District, restrictions on […]
Critical Public Meeting on Saving Third & Fourth Avenue Corridors in the East Village TONIGHT — Wednesday, September 13th Anyone who cares about overdevelopment in the area between 3rd and 5th Avenues, Union Square to Astor Place: Join GVSHP and neighbors at the Community Board #3 Land Use Committee Meeting TONIGHT, Wednesday, September 13 Rutgers Community […]
Op-ed by GVSHP Executive Director Andrew Berman in Read it here. To great fanfare, Mayor Bill de Blasio recently announced plans for a slick new “tech hub” to be built on E. 14th St. just east of Fourth Ave., on the current site of a P.C. Richard store. Sandwiched between two high-rise New York University […]
In the ten years leading up to 2004, the Far West Village along West Street experienced huge changes. Large, out-of-scale luxury developments were built where only low-rise buildings had been found for generations along the waterfront. In response, GVSHP and other local community groups banded together to push for landmark protections and downzoning of the neighborhood from […]
Five years ago this Sunday GVSHP and other community and preservation groups held a Rally to Save the South Village. More than 150 people including elected officials, community and business leaders and neighbors turned out on April 11, 2011 to call upon the City to landmark the remainder of the South Village and save this historic neighborhood […]
The City’s rezoning proposals ‘Zoning for Quality and Affordability’ (ZQA) and Mandatory Inclusionary Housing (MIH) are making their way through the public review process. If approved, each would profoundly impact our neighborhoods and our city, increasing the size and amount of allowable development. And while both have received overwhelming disapproval from community boards and Borough Presidents, […]
The City’s rezoning proposals ‘Zoning for Quality and Affordability’ (ZQA) and Mandatory Inclusionary Housing (MIH) are making their way through the public review process. If approved, each would profoundly impact our neighborhoods and our city, increasing the size and amount of allowable development. And while both have received overwhelming disapproval from community boards and Borough […]
The City’s rezoning proposals ‘Zoning for Quality and Affordability’ (ZQA) and Mandatory Inclusionary Housing (MIH) are making their way through the public review process. If approved, each would profoundly impact our neighborhoods and our city, increasing the size and amount of allowable development. And while both have received overwhelming disapproval from community boards and Borough […]
The City’s rezoning proposals ‘Zoning for Quality and Affordability’ (ZQA) and Mandatory Inclusionary Housing (MIH) are making their way through the public review process. If approved, each would profoundly impact our neighborhoods and our city, increasing the size and amount of allowable development. And while both have received overwhelming disapproval from community boards and Borough […]
The City’s rezoning proposals ‘Zoning for Quality and Affordability’ (ZQA) and Mandatory Inclusionary Housing (MIH) are making their way through the public review process. If approved, each would profoundly impact our neighborhoods and our city, increasing the size and amount of allowable development. And while have received overwhelming disapproval from community boards and Borough Presidents, […]
The Mayor’s proposed citywide rezoning proposal, ‘Zoning for Quality and Affordability’ will weaken neighborhood zoning protections. The proposal as currently structured includes many benefits for market rate developments, with some additional very generous benefits for developments that may include only a relatively small fraction of affordable or senior housing. Elected officials, neighborhood groups, and community […]
Community Board #2 will be holding a public hearing next Wednesday, January 14th at 6:30 pm at Grace Church High School, 46 Cooper Square (Bowery/East 6th Street), 3rd floor regarding GVSHP’s proposed contextual rezoning plan for the University Place and Broadway corridors. Anyone who is interested in the future or preservation of this area is […]
ZONING MATTERS: REZONED WEST VILLAGE DEVELOPMENT SITE WOULD HAVE ALLOWED HUGE TOWER, NOW MARKETED FOR TOWNHOUSES ~ Hearing Jan. 14 on Univ. Pl./B’way Rezoning Proposal It has recently been reported that the two-story duplex co-op apartments at 8 Charles Lane/151-157 Charles Street are being marketed for sale and redevelopment. What’s so noteworthy, however, is that […]
BY ANDREW BERMAN | Imagine a young developer from a big New York real estate family wants to make a name for himself. He decides to do so by developing a luxury high-rise tower in the heart of Greenwich Village that will be one of the tallest, if not the tallest, structures ever erected in the […]
In the Far West Village, along the Greenwich Village waterfront, sits a block of West Street between 10th and Charles Streets. Of the buildings on this block, only 396 and 398 West Street sit within the Weehawken Street Historic District, which the Landmarks Preservation Commission designated in 2006. The Greenwich Village waterfront is one of […]
GVSHP is proud to share it’s new report “Ten Years – A Thousand Buildings – One Hundred Blocks: A Decade of Progress on Landmark and Zoning Protections in the Village, East Village, and NoHo.” As we come to the end of the Bloomberg era, this meticulously detailed and richly photographed report examines what GVSHP has […]
On October 11, 2005, the Far West Village rezoning plan was unanimously approved and adopted. Village Preservation had led the fight for this plan to protect a vulnerable part of the Village. Here’s the story: In early 2004, following our successful efforts to landmark the Meatpacking District, Village Preservation and allied community groups kicked off […]
Last November, we showed how — to our amazement — the City’s own “Community Profile” of Community Board #2 categorized the Trump SoHo “Condo-Hotel” as a residential property. This would make it illegal under the zoning, because when built, the zoning in Hudson Square did not allow any sort of residential development. We (and many […]
GVSHP has gotten many inquiries about exactly what the City Council vote last week on the Hudson Square rezoning, and the announcements regarding the proposed South Village Historic District, means for our neighborhood. To help answer those, we have put together a “Frequently Asked Questions” about the Hudson Square rezoning deal below which we hope […]
With the City’s Council’s vote this week on the Hudson Square rezoning, which will decide if the South Village is saved or its destruction accelerated, we thought we’d remind everyone of why the South Village is so special to so many people. Some wonderful individuals with strong connections to the South Village allowed us to […]
From The Villager Newspaper, February 14, 2013 Op-Ed: Quinn Holds the Cards on Hudson Square Rezoning and South Village Landmarking http://www.thevillager.com/?p=10221 By Andrew Berman, Katy Bordonaro, Zack Winestine, Micki McGee, Richard Blodgett, Carl Rosenstein and Silvia Beam The Hudson Square rezoning currently before the City Council presents a rare case where a win-win is possible. Done […]
Working in historic preservation you sometimes find yourself dealing with things you never expect. On this date in 2006, GVSHP wrote to Mayor Bloomberg regarding a 19th century abolitionist church graveyard that had been dug up and disturbed in the process of preparing for the construction of the Trump SoHo Condo Hotel. Sadly, the disturbance […]
Trinity Real Estate, the major property owner in the Hudson Square neighborhood, is proposing to rezone more than a dozen blocks in Hudson Square, stretching from Houston to Canal Street, Sixth Avenue and Varick Street to Greenwich and Hudson Streets. GVSHP, the Charlton and Vandam Block Associations, the SoHo Alliance, the Greenwich Village Community Task […]
A few days ago, the venerable Mars bar on the corner of 2nd Avenue and 1st Street painted “Thanks for the memories, miss you all” over its entrance, in expectation of the much-anticipated demise of the beloved business and the building which housed it. While the actual end date, as well as future plans for the site, […]
