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NYC Seeks To Rezone SoHo And NoHo For Affordable Housing


Oct. 7, 2020

By Sydney Pereira

Read More: https://gothamist.com/news/nyc-will-...rdable-housing

Mayor Bill de Blasio has announced that the city will take on a rezoning fight that will include building affordable housing in two of the city's wealthiest and historic neighborhoods in downtown Manhattan, SoHo and NoHo. The strategy represents a significant departure from previous city-backed rezoning efforts that had centered on lower-income areas.

- The area targeted for rezoning would run from Astor Place down to Canal Street. The proposal would bring about 3,200 apartments to the area800 of which would be below-market rate. It would also redesign rules that currently require permitted artists to live in loft buildings once used for manufacturing under the Loft Law and remove certain bureaucratic processes currently required of new retail stores. Rent-regulated homes covered by the Loft Law would remain protected, the mayor's office said. — The area, lined with cobblestone streets and stunning cast iron loft buildings, has also long been fiercely protected by preservationists who argue that redeveloping SoHo would result in a loss of its character. But ultimately, the mayor differed. "We have an opportunity here to create affordable housing, to bring to an area that has been upper income, a greater mix of New Yorkers and to create more balance, which is something I believe in fundamentally," de Blasio said, during a press conference on Wednesday.

- Fresh off the defeat of the developer-proposed Industry City rezoning in Brooklyn, de Blasio and supporters of the plan are headed for what may be another bitter rezoning battle. Margaret Chin—a term-limited councilmember who nearly lost her re-election in part because of an affordable housing development fight in nearby Little Italy at the Elizabeth Street Garden would be a pivotal vote in the City Council under the public review process. She worked with Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer for months on visioning sessions with locals on the future of the neighborhoods that led to de Blasio's announcement this week. — "As our city continues its path to rebuild and recover, the movement to secure housing justice and build inclusive neighborhoods has never been more urgent," Chin said in a statement. "Our collective recovery as a city will be determined by how our communities rise up to confront that challenge."

- Will Thomas, a board member of Open New York, the group that fought for affordable housing in SoHo, called the rezoning proposal "a historic opportunity." — "This would really change the unspoken rules around development in New York City," Thomas said. "Breaking down the exclusionary barriers of SoHo is a matter of racial justice, is a matter of housing justice, and especially right now during a pandemic, affordable housing is more needed than ever." — Last year, Open New York proposed a housing-focused plan, with support from the Housing Rights Initiative, which shifted the rezoning debate in SoHo and NoHo from the creeping incursion of commercial development to the issue of affordable housing. Since then, building housing in rich neighborhoods has become an early flashpoint in looming 2021 elections. Mayoral candidates Eric Adams and Scott Stringer have recently expressed support for building affordable housing in SoHo and NoHo.

- Thomas says the renewed push for SoHo's rezoning is now a matter of de Blasio's legacy; the mayor has faced scrutiny for exclusively rezoning low-income neighborhoods like East New York, East Harlem, and Inwood. An early community session is scheduled for October 22nd, which happens to be the same day as the local community board's monthly full board meeting. Sean Sweeney, the director of the SoHo Alliance who has opposed the rezoning, pointed to the scheduling snafu as yet another way the city has screwed up the process. He contended that the residents' concern was about mega towers that could come with a rezoning. "We want affordable housing in SoHo. We don't care who wins the lotteries," Sweeney said. "We want affordable housing, but we don't want skyscrapers and that's what we're worried about." — "This was a slum here," Sweeney added. "Over a period of 30 years, lots of affordable housing has been created, not in the creation of new buildings, but in the conversion of existing factory buildings over to rent-stabilization buildings."

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