A coalition of community groups and co-op boards released a plan today seeking to curb high-rise development in Chinatown and the Lower East Side, according to an article today at wsj.com by Joseph de Avila and Shelly Banjo.
The groups say that development south of Houston Street has pushed out long-time residents and small businesses, the article said, and "their plan to preserve the area's local economy and heritage will compete with a rival proposal from real-estate groups that want to see development restraints loosened."
"This is the last immigrant neighborhood and last affordable area south of Central Park," said Brian Paul, a research and policy fellow at Hunter College's Center for Community Planning and Development who assisted with the design of the plan, adding that "Lower middle-income workers are important to the city as a whole," the article said.
The rezoning plan by the Coalition to Protect Chinatown and the Lower East Side, the article continued, "calls for a limitation on new hotels and luxury housing development construction" and would "also require newly constructed buildings in the area to resemble the five- and six-story structures that are currently found in those neighborhoods."
"The coalition hopes that its proposal will be adopted by the 52-member Chinatown Working Group, which includes nonprofits, community boards, developers and property owners that are working to submit a comprehensive Chinatown development plan to the city early next year," the article said.
Some real-estate developers, however, earlier this year submitted an alternative plan to that being prepared by the Chinatown Working Group and their plan calls for transforming Canal Street into a high-density area with tall office and apartment buildings, the article said.
"'Building up the area to create a critical mass of development is the only way to revitalize the physical fabric of the area and the job base, which is what Chinatown critically needs,' says Douglas Woodward, a planning consultant who represents the developers in the community. He says his group is working to target specific blocks for development in order to avoid a blanket moratorium on development that Mr. Woodward says could hamper the area's economic growth," the article maintained.
The Coalition to Protect Chinatown and the Lower East Side became concerned with area's zoning restrictions after the East Village was rezoned to ban high-rise construction in 2008. After that, the article said that Wah Lee, a community organizer with the group, said that developers turned their attention to neighborhoods south of Houston Street.
The groups say that development south of Houston Street has pushed out long-time residents and small businesses, the article said, and "their plan to preserve the area's local economy and heritage will compete with a rival proposal from real-estate groups that want to see development restraints loosened."
"This is the last immigrant neighborhood and last affordable area south of Central Park," said Brian Paul, a research and policy fellow at Hunter College's Center for Community Planning and Development who assisted with the design of the plan, adding that "Lower middle-income workers are important to the city as a whole," the article said.
The rezoning plan by the Coalition to Protect Chinatown and the Lower East Side, the article continued, "calls for a limitation on new hotels and luxury housing development construction" and would "also require newly constructed buildings in the area to resemble the five- and six-story structures that are currently found in those neighborhoods."
"The coalition hopes that its proposal will be adopted by the 52-member Chinatown Working Group, which includes nonprofits, community boards, developers and property owners that are working to submit a comprehensive Chinatown development plan to the city early next year," the article said.
Some real-estate developers, however, earlier this year submitted an alternative plan to that being prepared by the Chinatown Working Group and their plan calls for transforming Canal Street into a high-density area with tall office and apartment buildings, the article said.
"'Building up the area to create a critical mass of development is the only way to revitalize the physical fabric of the area and the job base, which is what Chinatown critically needs,' says Douglas Woodward, a planning consultant who represents the developers in the community. He says his group is working to target specific blocks for development in order to avoid a blanket moratorium on development that Mr. Woodward says could hamper the area's economic growth," the article maintained.
The Coalition to Protect Chinatown and the Lower East Side became concerned with area's zoning restrictions after the East Village was rezoned to ban high-rise construction in 2008. After that, the article said that Wah Lee, a community organizer with the group, said that developers turned their attention to neighborhoods south of Houston Street.
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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