Community Board 4 held a hearing Thursday on a proposed rezoning in West Clinton that would be bounded by 12th Avenue, 43rd and 55th Streets and extend eastward in some places as far as Tenth Avenue.

According to an article by Tara Kyle at DNAinfo.com, city planner Erika Selke told the meeting that one of the goals of the rezoning "is to open new residential opportunities on the east side of Eleventh Avenue - putting some apartments within 500 feet of venues like Larry Flynt's Hustler Club and the Penthouse Executive Club, which are scattered along the blocks adjacent to the Hudson River."

"For First Amendment reasons," the article continued, "strip clubs that are already legally operating by the time the new zoning goes into effect would be allowed to stay, according to Selke."

"Other goals for the proposed rezoning, which is the culmination of four years of dialogue between CB4, the Department of City Planning, residents and business owners, include allowing continued manufacturing development between Eleventh and Twelfth Avenue and maintaining the aesthetic character of the neighborhood," the article said, adding that "one major outcome of the West Clinton Rezoning would be the imposition of height limits, in an area where developers can currently construct towers of unlimited height."

"It would also prohibit hotels from moving onto the blocks between Eleventh and Twelfth Avenues - a popular cause in the neighborhood," the article said.

The rezoning would promote affordable housing by allowing developers to propose higher density buildings if they're making 20 percent of their units affordable - though these don't necessarily have to be on site, the article said..

"The recent influx of luxury development in the neighborhood," the article continued, "remains a sore point for many long-time residents, who say landlords are now financially motivated to pressure them to leave."

"Increased residential development in the broader Clinton neighborhood," according to the city's Department of Planning, "has demonstrated that the western portion of Clinton, generally the area west of Tenth Avenue, is a desirable place to live. In the past decade, a number of as-of-right residential buildings have been constructed in the existing residential and commercial districts between Tenth and Eleventh avenues. While residential construction has increased between Tenth Avenue and Eleventh Avenue, new commercial, office, utility and other manufacturing-district compatible use construction has taken place on the blocks between Eleventh Avenue and Twelfth Avenue. The expanded facilities of utility companies such as Verizon and ConEd, and of vehicle-distribution companies such as FedEx, are important in that they serve the adjacent midtown business district, and the city as a whole. In addition, new office development provides space for companies at a lower rent than what is typically found in the central midtown business district."

The department said that proposed text amendments would ensure new development in the rezoning area would be in context with the surrounding built environment.

Under the proposed action, new R8, R8A/C2-5, R9, R9/C2-5 and M2-4 districts would be mapped in the rezoning area; and

The existing Special Clinton District would be extended to include two full blocks and a portion of one block west of Eleventh Avenue between West 44th and West 47th Streets and extend the applicability of certain regulations of the Other Area of the Special Clinton District from the blocks to the north, east, and south.