The City Council voted overwhelmingly on Wednesday to approve a sweeping rezoning plan that will reshape the face of 125th Street.
The rezoning, approved by a vote of 47-2, is a modified version of a plan originally proposed by the Department of City Planning. The rezoned area extends from Broadway to Second Avenue, and 124th to 126th streets. In line with City Planning’s proposal, it will allow denser commercial development and taller buildings, aiming to draw shoppers and tourists to the street.
Councilwoman Inez Dickens (D-Harlem) was initially opposed to the plan, but she has since secured several concessions in negotiations with City Planning. Under her changes, 46 percent of all new housing units built in the area will be income-targeted affordable housing—a percentage that surpasses any prior requirement in the city’s history. Other revisions include height restrictions capping buildings at 195 feet, a $750,000 forgivable-loan program for businesses adversely affected by the plan, creation of a local arts advisory board, and $5.8 million for capital improvements in Marcus Garvey Park.
“I’m fighting to support and protect my community,” Dickens said. “It’s an inclusionary program never before done in the history of this great city.”
Dickens also lauded the modified plan’s sensitivity to neighborhood landmarks.
“In a court of law there are no protections for historic and indigenous cultural institutions,” she said. “With this rezoning, Harlem’s historically indigenous cultural institutions will be protected.”
Many council members voiced hope that the concessions secured by Dickens would become a precedent for future rezonings around the city.
Councilwoman Rosie Mendez (D-Lower East Side) noted that rezoning talks were underway in her district. “We’re going to bring Inez Dickens to those negotiations because we’ve only been asking for 30 percent” affordable housing, she said. “Inez, what can you get us?”
Councilman Domenic Recchia (D-Brooklyn) echoed her sentiments. After voicing support for the plan, he added, “And to [City Planning Commission Chairwoman] Amanda Burden, I hope I get treated as good as Inez Dickens did.”
Despite support from local council members, a vocal group of Harlem residents came to the meeting to oppose the plan. They fear that the rezoning will drive prices up in a neighborhood that is already gentrifying rapidly, and they doubt whether the affordable housing units mandated in the new plan will actually be within reach for low-income residents.
After Dickens’ remarks were disrupted repeatedly, the council chamber was cleared of spectators. As audience members were escorted out of the room, several broke into a chorus of “We Shall Overcome.” Many of them waited on the steps of City Hall for the vote to be completed, and, when Planning Commissioner Burden left the building, greeted her with a mock round of applause.
Councilman Tony Avella (D-Queens), chairman of the Zoning and Franchises Committee, threw in his lot with opponents of the rezoning. “I intend to vote against it here today mainly because it’s planning from the top down,” he said. “It’s not going to be the Harlem the people there think it’s going to be. It’s going to be Park Avenue.”
The only other “no” vote came from Councilman Charles Barron (D-Brooklyn).
While voting in favor of the rezoning, Councilwoman Helen Foster (D-Bronx) raised concerns over clearing the audience from the chamber. “I would like to think that we do it across the board and not based on color,” she said.
Central Harlem resident Sandra Rivers said it was “outrageous” that “only two council people voted with the people.”
“We will be continuing with our legal challenge to this ridiculous vote,” she said.
An advocacy group called Voices of the Everyday People has filed a lawsuit against the city seeking to stay the effect of the vote, arguing that the city failed in its legal obligation to provide written notice to property owners who would be adversely affected by the rezoning. A request for an injunction to stop the vote was denied at the New York County Supreme Court Wednesday morning. The group is pursuing an appeal, asking the court to stay the effect of the vote, and a court date is set for next week.
“If it goes ahead as planned, it will make things worse,” Rivers said, explaining that the rezoning would encourage the “overgrowth of predatory development in Harlem.”
“You have small businesses saying they can’t afford the rent,” added West Harlem resident Monique Ndigo Washington. The city’s environmental impact statement estimated that 71 businesses could be displaced by the plan.
Daniel Amzallag and Alix Pianin contributed to this article.
erin.durkin@columbiaspectator.com