A rezoning of 125th Street was approved yesterdat by the all of the members of the Zoning and Franchises Subcommittee of the City Council except its chair, Tony Avella, after the plan was revised to meet some community objections that it would lead to gentrification that could force out low-income residents and some businesses.

The Council's land use committee was expected to approve the revised plan today and the full City Council is now expected to approve the plan later this month.

The rezoning covers 24 blocks between 124th and 126th Streets between Broadway and Second Avenue.

The Bloomberg administration's proposal to rezone 125th Street in Harlem cleared a major hurdle on Tuesday when the area's three City Council members signed off on a compromise plan that would limit the height of new buildings, add moderately priced housing and provide financial aid to businesses displaced by the rezoning.

The plan won the backing of three members of the committee from the area, Inez E. Dickens, Robert Jackson and Melissa Mark-Viverito after the rezoning was revised in last-minute negotiations to reduce the height limit on new buildings in the zone from 29 to 19 stories and to create a $750,000 loan program to assist about 70 businesses that might be forced to relocate and to allocate about $5,800,000 in improvements to Marcus Garvey Park.

Councilwoman Dickens said that the rezoning "will change the fabric of my district, my community, my home forever," adding that "if there were no protections for my community, there would be no rezoning." "After many hours of deliberations, disagreements and debate, I do believe the City Planning Commission heard me loud and clear," she declared.

The rezoning will encourage new commercial development and more than 2,000 new market-rate condominiums. In the negotiations, the Bloomberg administration agreed to expand the number of low-income Harlem residents that would be eligible for moderately priced housing by setting aside about 46 percent of the 3,858 new housing units in the rezoned area to be available for families earning no more than $30,750 a year. The original proposal called for the creation of 2,500 new housing units.

Part of the rezoning calls for allocating space for cultural uses along 125th Street.

The Harlem Community Development Corporation announced November 27, 2007 that it had conditionally designated Danforth Development Partners LLC as the preferred developer to transform the Victoria Theater at 233 West 125th Street into a 30-story, mixed-use complex.

The plan calls for a 40,500-square-foot cultural arts condominium, a hotel with 170 to 200 rooms and 91 residential condominiums. The arts center will include a 199-seat theater to be used primarily by the Classical Theater of Harlem, a 99-seat theater for the primary use of the Harlem Arts Alliance, 10,150 square feet for the primary use of the Jazz Museum of Harlem, and 4,000 square feet of office space for the primary use of the Apollo Theater.

The project will restore the facade of the Victoria Theater that was shuttered more than a decade ago.

The Victoria was formerly the Loew's Victoria Theater and is located close to the Apollo Theater. The movie palace was converted to a five-screen multiplex theater in 1987 but it subsequently closed.

An article by David Freedlander in today's edition of AM New York, however, said that the Danforth plan is being opposed by the Harlem Victoria Restoration Group, which is headed by Ethel Bates. The group would like to see a restoration of the 2,394-seat, 1917 theater that was, according to the article, "host to some of the early fights of a young Cassius Clay as well as the last New York City performance of Josephine Baker."

The article said that "a spokeswoman for the Landmarks Preservation Commission said that it was currently under review, but a hearing on the site had not yet been scheduled."