The City Planning Commission held a public hearing yesterday at the College of the City of New York on its proposed rezoning of 125th Street between Broadway and Second Avenue in Harlem to permit taller buildings, higher densities and encourage more arts and entertainment uses and discourage some retail uses such as bank branches.
The plan proposes a height limit of 290 feet, substantially above the 160-foot height of the Hotel Theresa that is a limit recommended by City Councilwoman Inez Dickens, and substantially below the 330-foot-high proposed, shifted-box, 630,000-square-foot office building known as Harlem Park that Vornado Real Estate Trust, MacFarlane Partners and Integrated Holdings want to erect by the Metro North station at Park Avenue. A rendering of the proposed office building is shown at the right.
The commission's plan has been criticized by Community Board 10, whose chairman, Frank Perry, said that it would "have a negative impact on central Harlem and on all who revere 125th Street," adding that most residential development on the street "will not be within the financial reach of the average Harlemite."
An organization called VOTE People had argued that buildings already submitted to the Landmarks Preservation Commission for consideration as landmarks be designated before any rezoning takes effect and that any development should only involve local firms and that rates for "affordable" housing be set at levels to accommodate low-income residents.
"The proposed action to rezone 125th Street is...virtually silent on the need to preserve and revitalize Harlem's historical, cultural and social institutions," according to a position paper by VOTE People.
"For example," it continued, "the community's battle to restore the historical, landmark-quality Victoria Theater shows City Planning's and other involved city and state agencies' and entities' blatant disregard for past and future cultural recognition and advancement in the Afro-American Harlem community. The community is in a protracted battle with the Harlem Community Development Corporation to make the theater a landmark, but the Victoria is not alone. Several other buildings in the area, such as Blumstein's Department Store Building, where Adam Clayton Powell initiated the 'Don't Buy Where You Can't Work' boycott establishing employment rights for blocks, and the Elks Lodge, home to the first African-American union, among others, deserve historical landmark status before any discussion of rezoning 125th Street begins."
The VOTE People document claimed that the planning proposal "underestimates the imminent exiling of Harlem's community in its conclusion that only '500 residents in 190 units in five census tracts...could be vulnerable,' adding that "According to Community Board 10, 2,077 currently occupied units will be directly impacted by the rezoning, in addition to the indirect impacts caused by the development."
The commission is expected to vote on the proposed rezoning by March 10.
The plan proposes a height limit of 290 feet, substantially above the 160-foot height of the Hotel Theresa that is a limit recommended by City Councilwoman Inez Dickens, and substantially below the 330-foot-high proposed, shifted-box, 630,000-square-foot office building known as Harlem Park that Vornado Real Estate Trust, MacFarlane Partners and Integrated Holdings want to erect by the Metro North station at Park Avenue. A rendering of the proposed office building is shown at the right.
The commission's plan has been criticized by Community Board 10, whose chairman, Frank Perry, said that it would "have a negative impact on central Harlem and on all who revere 125th Street," adding that most residential development on the street "will not be within the financial reach of the average Harlemite."
An organization called VOTE People had argued that buildings already submitted to the Landmarks Preservation Commission for consideration as landmarks be designated before any rezoning takes effect and that any development should only involve local firms and that rates for "affordable" housing be set at levels to accommodate low-income residents.
"The proposed action to rezone 125th Street is...virtually silent on the need to preserve and revitalize Harlem's historical, cultural and social institutions," according to a position paper by VOTE People.
"For example," it continued, "the community's battle to restore the historical, landmark-quality Victoria Theater shows City Planning's and other involved city and state agencies' and entities' blatant disregard for past and future cultural recognition and advancement in the Afro-American Harlem community. The community is in a protracted battle with the Harlem Community Development Corporation to make the theater a landmark, but the Victoria is not alone. Several other buildings in the area, such as Blumstein's Department Store Building, where Adam Clayton Powell initiated the 'Don't Buy Where You Can't Work' boycott establishing employment rights for blocks, and the Elks Lodge, home to the first African-American union, among others, deserve historical landmark status before any discussion of rezoning 125th Street begins."
The VOTE People document claimed that the planning proposal "underestimates the imminent exiling of Harlem's community in its conclusion that only '500 residents in 190 units in five census tracts...could be vulnerable,' adding that "According to Community Board 10, 2,077 currently occupied units will be directly impacted by the rezoning, in addition to the indirect impacts caused by the development."
The commission is expected to vote on the proposed rezoning by March 10.
Architecture Critic
Carter Horsley
Since 1997, Carter B. Horsley has been the editorial director of CityRealty. He began his journalistic career at The New York Times in 1961 where he spent 26 years as a reporter specializing in real estate & architectural news. In 1987, he became the architecture critic and real estate editor of The New York Post.
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