CB9 proposes new rezoning plan

Six years after Community Board 9 introduced its 197-a rezoning plan as an alternative to Columbia’s vision for its new Manhattanville campus, officials say aspects of the proposal are finally on the road to implementation.

Major portions of the 2003 plan will be proposed as part of a full-scale rezoning of the CB9 district, which encompasses Manhattan’s west side from 110th to 155th streets. Two central components are inclusionary housing and contextual development, and a third component would be an unspecified rezoning of the manufacturing district east of Amsterdam Avenue between 125th and 130th streets.

Inclusionary housing refers to the process of allowing higher-density development in exchange for permanent affordable housing.

Contextual development involves modification of zoning regulations to correspond to the existing buildings in the area, to prevent developers from building in a way that doesn’t fit with the character of the rest of the neighborhood.

“The community board is very interested in maintaining the architectural integrity and architecture, while at the same time looking for opportunities to create affordable housing,” CB9 chair Pat Jones said, adding that Borough President Scott Stringer has been a strong advocate of the rezoning plan.

Stringer’s office declined to comment publicly on specifics of the plan.

The 197-a plan, developed in 2003, was “just a vision,” Jones said. Since 2007, CB9, the Department of City Planning, and the borough president’s office have been discussing an official rezoning plan.

“This is good contextual zoning that will preserve the integrity of the neighborhood,” said City Council member Robert Jackson, whose district includes parts of Morningside Heights, West Harlem, and Hamilton Heights. “It’s a no-brainer.”

Jackson added that he had expressed his support to Stringer’s office when it reached out to him.

The rezoning will not affect Columbia’s Manhattanville expansion plans, as the 17-acre footprint of the new campus was rezoned as part of its own approval process and thus excluded from this latest rezoning.

For now, the project is in early stages of discussion, but Jones said an official proposal was likely by the end of the year or by early 2010. Once an application is made, the proposal will enter ULURP, the citywide Uniform Land Use Review Procedure.

“City Planning has come to us with some preliminary views on what the rezoning would look like, and the [CB9] Housing, Land Use, and Zoning committees did a comprehensive review and issued a survey to residents,” Jones said. “It may well be one of the largest rezonings in the city.”