The Department of City Planning this week entered its proposed rezoning of part of northern TriBeCa into the city's Uniform Land Use Review process.

The area to be rezoned is 25 blocks south of Canal Street.

The rezoning would permit the most density near the Holland Tunnel, with a floor-to-area ratio of 7.2 if the developer includes affordable housing on site or nearby.

The proposal allows the greatest bulk near the entrance to the Holland Tunnel, while quieter, more historic blocks to the east and west of the tunnel will be designated for more modest sized structures.

According to an article at DNAinfo.com today by Julie Shapiro, "at the community's request, the city agreed to limit ground-floor retail shops to 10,000 square feet on wide streets and 5,000 square feet on narrow streets, to prevent large chains from coming into the neighborhood."

In addition to encouraging residential development more appropriate to the changing character of the area, the proposal would permit people illegally living in lofts zoned for manufacturing to legalize their homes by applying for a residential certificate of occupancy.

According to the article, Michael Levine, the director of Land Use and Planning for CB1, cited SoHo as an example of a neighborhood that had gone through this transformation before, adding that "when this type of rezoning occurs in neighborhoods, the number of legal residences jumps immediately because everyone goes and gets legalized."

The rezoning will continue to permit some industrial uses such as furniture making and machine repair.

An article today by Sarah at curbed.com quoted Peter Braus, the chair of the TriBeCa Committee of Community Board 1 as stating that the rezoning will "bring our neighborhood into compliance with what it's become," adding that "We're not a manufacturing neighborhood any longer - we're a residential neighborhood."

The proposed rezoning area is generally bounded by Canal Street to the north, West Street to the west, N. Moore, Beach, and Walker streets to the south, and Broadway to the east.

The Department of City Planned maintains that "while many developments have been modestly scaled, the existing zoning does not have any bulk envelope restrictions, and new developments could threaten to erode the established built character."

"Through zoning text and zoning map amendments, the Department's proposal would: encourage new development to reflect existing neighborhood character and scale by establishing contextual zoning districts with unique floor area ratios and bulk envelopes; provide opportunities for housing through residential conversions, in-fill residential development, and incentives for affordable housing; and to provide for a diversity of uses in the area by allowing specific light manufacturing uses and restricting the size of retail establishments."

The proposed text amendment would eliminate loft dwelling requirements on size and window area. Instead, the conversion of existing buildings would be governed by the underlying zoning district and regulations on conversions to residential use which are used throughout the City. For example, existing zoning regulates unit size by requiring a minimum of 2,000 square feet or by meeting a certain window to floor area ratio. In the proposed text, units will be governed by density requirements which allow for greater range of housing from studios to family size apartments.