[NYguy]

http://www.downtownexpress.com/?p=4473

Hearing it on Hudson Sq.; It’s all in the heights

November 9, 2011
By ALBERT AMATEAU

The Department of City Planning heard from the public last week on Trinity Real Estate’s proposal for a Special Hudson Square District intended to encourage mixed-use, residential and commercial development. The proposal would cover an 18-block manufacturing district, roughly between Canal and W. Houston Sts. and between Greenwich St. and Sixth Ave., in an area where changes are running far ahead of land-use rules.

The rezoning would set height limits on new buildings, allow new residential construction and some conversion of commercial buildings...At the now-vacant lot that Trinity owns in the southeast corner of the district with frontages on three wide thoroughfares, Varick and Canal Sts. and Sixth Ave., the zoning would permit a 430-foot-tall, residential building, the district’s tallest, with space for a 420-seat public elementary school on the lower floors.

The zoning would allow as-of-right, residential conversion of buildings up to 50,000 square feet, but several groups and residents wanted residential conversions allowed for larger buildings in the district — of 70,000 square feet or more.

Except for the 430-foot limit at the southeast corner of the district, the zoning calls for a height limit of 320 feet on the wide streets of Canal, Greenwich, Hudson and Varick Sts. and Sixth Ave. On the narrow streets, the height cap would be 185 feet....The Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation said the 320-foot height limit on wide streets in the district is too high, even though it’s lower than the no-limit present zoning. G.V.S.H.P. wants the E.I.S. to consider a 185-foot height limit for wide streets and strongly advised that the 430-foot cap for the southeast corner of the district should be cut back.

Scoping documents...
http://www.nyc.gov/html/dcp/pdf/env_...raft_scope.pdf

http://www.nyc.gov/html/dcp/pdf/env_...square/eas.pdf