Harlem rezoning plan has local residents nervous

Local residents are still apprehensive about a proposal to rezone West Harlem, an effort that has been in the works for nearly five years and which will be the first large-scale rezoning of the area in over 50 years.

The rezoning, which will affect the 90-block area from 126th Street to 155th Street and from Riverside Drive to Edgecombe Avenue, will institute limits on building heights in an effort to preserve the historical character of Harlem, and will also create commercial space and affordable housing on 145th Street. The zone does not include Columbia’s 17-acre Manhattanville campus expansion.

At a meeting with officials from the Department of City Planning on Thursday night, residents criticized the rezoning plan’s Environmental Assessment Statement, saying it does not adequately evaluate the consequences of rezoning. The statement is a review of rezoning’s impact on Harlem’s socioeconomic condition, historical resources, public health, and transportation, among other topics.

Harlem’s Democratic District Leader Jamaal Nelson said, to scattered applause, that the rezoning proposal was part of ongoing attempts to “bring downtown to uptown.”

“Harlem is one of the world’s greatest treasures, and West Harlem is its crown jewel,” Nelson said. “But the pink elephant in the room is that the Columbia expansion and now this rezoning proposal make us feel as if we are being robbed.”

Many meeting attendees maintained that the environmental study is lacking, especially in its assessment of changes to 145th Street.

“You can’t stand on the subway platform as it is—it’s very old,” said Pat Jones, the chair of Community Board 9’s land use and rezoning committee. “You can’t drive across 145th, and people with disabilities don’t have enough access. We live there right now. We want a fair assessment of what might happen.”

Simon Thoreson, a member of CB9, was critical of the study’s loose restrictions on building heights. The proposed building height limits, he said, are too high and could result in tall building shadows, which in turn could make the street windy and cold.

The rezoning proposal suggests offering incentives for affordable housing along one block of 145th, but Thoreson said these incentives are unlikely to help anyone who actually needs housing support.

“The only inclusionary housing proposed in the whole area in this one block, which is likely to be too expensive for many residents,” he said.

In a statement, City Council member Robert Jackson said that he applauds DCP’s “diligent efforts in engaging the West Harlem community in this rezoning process,” although he urged DCP to “respond by ensuring that all the effects of rezoning are thoroughly analyzed and that residents are made fully informed of the concrete consequences of all available options.”

“It is only through this public and empowering process, that the West Harlem Rezoning will serve as an agent that will safeguard one of the City’s most iconic neighborhoods while serving as a springboard for economic development,” Jackson said.

At Thursday night’s meeting, Jones said that changes to Harlem’s demographics have been the result of high rents elsewhere in the city rather than local rezoning efforts.

“West Harlem is a sleeper community,” Jones said. “Manhattanville has put a spotlight on it, rezoning puts a spotlight on it, but people are comfortable living in West Harlem. This is the last affordable frontier in Manhattan.”

Meeting attendees also maintained that, despite its flaws, the rezoning proposal takes important steps toward historical preservation in the zoning area, which includes four historic districts.

“Harlem’s made out of lines of 19th-century Paris, with wide boulevards and low buildings,” Thoreson said. “It remains one of the few places in Manhattan with big skies for long uninterrupted distances, and that’s the way it should be kept.”

jillian.kumagai@columbiaspectator.com