Group Pushes to Rezone East Village

The past few decades have brought tremendous amounts of change to the East Village (and many other parts of the city). And we all know that anytime something changes in Manhattan, for good or bad, you can expect to see an angry brigade of community members. So it comes as no surprise to read that a group in the East Village is working hard to get the neighborhood rezoned for the first time in 40 years. The Villager is reporting that the East Village Community Coalition (which came together to fight the dorm that was going to go up on E. Ninth over P.S. 64) has commissioned a comprehensive rezoning study from BFJ Planning, saving the city a fair amount of time and money.

And what, you ask, are these neighbors pushing for? Less bars? No not really, while the community members involved would be interested in having fewer drinking establishments in the East Village, that turns out to be a tough row to hoe as the neighborhood is designated Group 6 (which means drinking is allowed, and also grandfathers commercial spaces which don't currently serve booze into the group). Stopping current construction? Nope (that just doesn't seem to work as developers rarely flinch). No, what this group wants is pretty simple: They want the city to rezone the East Village so that no more buildings can go above 80 feet and to fix the dreaded community facility zoning. Why dreaded? Because over the past few years developers have learned how to use the perks offered with community facility zoning (basically you get to build bigger if you say you'll be offering community services, including dormitories) to produce such out of place eyesores as the NYU dorm on Second and the Bowery, the New York Law School dorm on Third between Second and First and the formally-going-to-be-a-dorm-now-just-going-to-be-a-boutique-hotel on Third and the Bowery.

Of course, any rezoning will take some time, but EVCC is pushing for an expedited process that would go before City Planning in a year or two. Gothamist says the sooner the community facility zoning allowance is fixed the better. What's your take? Is the East Village getting too tall?

Photograph of P.S. 64, which EVCC is working to preserve and turn into a community center

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By Garth Johnston in News on September 17, 2005 12:31 PM

Comments [rss]

SFNY

Isn't it that "The Bowery" is the neighborhood (or the ballroom), and just plain "Bowery" is the street? Would you tell a cab to drop you at "Third and Bowery" or "Third and The Bowery?" The latter sounds really weird, and the cab will take your money and dump your ass at the same intersection, in any case.

SFNY

Isn't it that "The Bowery" is the neighborhood (or the ballroom), and just plain "Bowery" is the street? Would you tell a cab to drop you at "Third and Bowery" or "Third and The Bowery?" The latter sounds really weird, but it doesn't necessarily mean it's wrong. The cab will take your money and dump your ass at the same intersection, in any case.

SFNY

Isn't it that "The Bowery" is the neighborhood (or the ballroom), and just plain "Bowery" is the street? Would you tell a cab to drop you at "Third and Bowery" or "Third and The Bowery?" The latter sounds really weird, but it doesn't necessarily mean it's wrong. The cab will dump your ass at the same intersection, in any case.

frank lloyd wrong

Now if they could just tear down that eyesore near Spring and Bowery, as well as the Rivington Hotel and stop that Blue thing from going up.

Grammar Police

i think you mean "formerly", not "formally."

pugsley

Yeah, the new buildings are too high. While I like the design of many of the new buildings they are ruining the neighborhood. We already can see what warehousing of great numbers of people has done to uptown. Keep the east village short.

Lambhead

I lived in NYC for 20 years and unfortunately relocated in 2004. imagine my confusion during my visit this summer as I walked along Bowery and saw the same glassy 90 story condo high rises that are springing up all over the Upper West Side, and already dominate the upper east. I hope the re-zoning efforts prevail as these eyesores are unforgiveable.

Grumpy Pants

Let's take a moment to think about this.

1. Tall buildings aren't necessarily bad by their nature. Poorly designed and poorly proportioned buildings ARE a problem that exists if a building is 80 or 180 feet tall.

2. I don't know if these people have noticed but we've got a bit of a housing crunch in this city and it would be nice if people would make more apartments. Of course building more is not going to solve anything unless the zoning requires that some of those apartments(I would say 75%-80%)be listed at below market prices/rents. But at least that's something to push for and it's both realistic and will probably help the neighborhood.

3. Three words DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA. DC has insane height limitations throughout the city. The result has not been better architecture or neighborhoods, but rather some really tall buildings in the suburbs and until recently a complete lack of interest in making new buildings in the district because the economics make it hard when you can only build 6 stories.

Once again a well meaning community group stabs it's fellow residents in the back. What will it take for people to start to think seriously about the urban/architectural problems of New York?