Tag Archives: rezoning

Community Power and the Jerome Avenue Rezoning

The Jerome Avenue rezoning passed the City Council at the end of March, despite widespread community opposition to the very end. 92 blocks of Jerome Avenue and some cross streets have now been rezoned from primarily auto uses and manufacturing to high density residential districts. In addition, the de Blasio administration and City Council have shared a list of commitments secured for the neighborhood as part of the rezoning.

So what does this all mean about the impact of community engagement on the rezoning process? There’s no single correct assessment. After years of engagement around the rezoning, every member of the Bronx Coalition for a Community Vision will have their own understanding of the balance between what was won and lost. The tradeoffs in the final Jerome Avenue deal can make community organizations feel that a real victory is elusive.

But, the Bronx Coalition for a Community Vision had a major impact and has much to be proud of. Within a land use system that too often disenfranchises lower income communities – especially communities of color – the Bronx Coalition built an incredible amount of power for, and within, their neighborhoods. They did this by bringing together a broad coalition of tenants, small business owners, union members, and faith leaders truly representative of the Bronx. Through the strength of community organizing and the commitment of these engaged members, the Bronx Coalition is directly responsible for a host of historic victories, many of them years in the making; many of them deemed impossible when they were first proposed. Despite the frustrations and limitations of organizing around a rezoning, it seems important that these victories are acknowledged and celebrated.

These include two major new citywide policies that have the potential to significantly reduce the harassment and displacement of tenants – a Right to Counsel that ensures low-income people have a right to legal representation when facing eviction, and the Certificate of No Harassment pilot that requires landlords to prove they haven’t harassed tenants before they can receive major building permits. While both of these were large efforts by organizations from throughout the City, neither would likely have succeeded last year without the Coalition’s efforts.

On the local level, the Coalition’s organizing helped win a host of important commitments, including:

• The creation of 2 new schools for the overcrowded district
• Dedicated funding to help businesses in the rezoning area relocate
• The creation of a Local Hiring and Responsible Contracting Working Group
• Inclusion of the Jerome neighborhood in HPD’s Partners in Preservation pilot program, including the creation of an inventory of local affordable housing units that the Coalition long called for

All of these commitments and polices will require continued organizing and engagement to achieve their full potential – this is where the power the Bronx Coalition has built will continue to be brought to bear.   

Still, at the end of the day, the rezoning passed with core community demands around jobs and affordable housing development left unresolved, and the Bronx Coalition still firmly in opposition. In the coming years, it is likely that primarily market-rate housing will be built where the auto-shops and businesses of Jerome Avenue now stand. This may make it difficult to celebrate the very real victories the Bronx Coalition did achieve. There is much that remains to be done to change the way land use decisions are made in our city, but the power the Bronx Coalition built through the strength of its organizing is an essential component – perhaps the essential component – to continue and eventually win this fight. The strength and solidarity of the Bronx Coalition, in and of itself, is an important victory and should be celebrated.

Christopher Walters, ANHD’s Rezoning Technical Assistance Coordinator

Community Asks Who Benefits from Staten Island Rezoning

Yesterday afternoon, members of Staten Island’s Housing Dignity Coalition (HDC) rallied on the steps of City Hall to demand deeper affordability for the proposed rezoning of Bay Street on the North Shore. Local residents and faith leaders explained why this rezoning will not serve the pressing needs of the community and called for a more inclusive plan that truly matches the incomes of families and households currently living in the area.

The proposed rezoning, which was unveiled in the spring of 2016, calls for converting a 14-block stretch of Bay Street from manufacturing to residential zoning, at a range of permitted densities and heights spanning 6 to 16 stories. The City estimates this will create close to 1,600 new apartments along Bay Street, 25% of which would be affordable for households making an average of 60% AMI, or $51,540 for a family of three under Mandatory Inclusionary Housing (MIH) Option 1.

But as Coalition members pointed out, close to half of households in Staten Island Community District 1 make below $50,000 and one third make below $35,000. These community members will not benefit from the affordable housing this rezoning would provide. Or as HDC Leader Pastor Janet Jones said, “We don’t need a 75/25 deal on the North Shore. We need deep affordability that considers a single mom with two kids that earns low wages.”

While the lowest income households will be excluded from the housing created under this rezoning plan, its negative impacts likely won’t pass them by. Coalition members spoke to the displacement concerns that this rezoning could help unleash – noting that new investments and development have the potential to change the housing market and drive lower-income and at-risk households out of the neighborhood – unless they are paired with strong tenant protections and the creation of deeply affordable units.

This call for greater protections and affordability is especially relevant in a rezoning like Bay Street, where the City wants to convert manufacturing land to residential. By allowing the creation of a substantial amount of new housing where it currently isn’t permitted at all, the City would create windfall profits for developers and landowners – all the more reason to ensure this rezoning does more to create deeper affordability and true benefit for the majority of the community. As several speakers noted, public land is one place to start. Right now, the rezoning proposes to give away four public sites to private developers, only two of which would see residential development, and neither of which would be 100% affordable. When it comes to what happens on these public sites, speakers at the rally asked, who decides and who benefits? The HDC wants a guarantee that they will be used for the greatest public good – not given away to private interests.

At the end of the rally, members of the HDC Executive Committee entered City Hall to deliver 600 petitions calling on Mayor de Blasio to change the rezoning proposal to ensure deeper affordability. This call from Staten Island echoes demands from rezoning neighborhoods throughout the city – from East New York to East Harlem to Jerome Avenue. They are being made for a simple reason: residents of these neighborhoods need more affordable housing and they understand that these rezonings, as proposed, are not the best way of getting it. This is why they will continue pushing their demands until the City listens. As the Coalition noted, “If the goal for Staten Island is a waterfront that looks pretty, then the City’s proposal will suffice. If the goal is a waterfront that looks pretty and that our families can afford, then we must push the City to do more.”

Christopher Walters, ANHD’s Rezoning Technical Assistance Coordinator

It’s Up to the City Council to Make the Jerome Avenue Rezoning Right

Today the City Council held their public hearing on the Jerome Avenue rezoning, and despite the weather, community members came out in force to make their voices heard. The Bronx Coalition for a Community Vision held a press conference on the steps of City Hall to start the day, and coalition members and local residents gave testimony in the Council Chamber until late into the afternoon.

The Bronx Coalition has been clear from the beginning that the rezoning cannot move forward unless it corresponds to the local community’s vision and needs. At the press conference and in their testimony, speaker after speaker made their core demands explicit: reduce the scale of the rezoning and implement a No Net Loss Policy pilot program for Jerome. Both are aimed at preventing the displacement of current residents and ensuring that future housing remains affordable for the current community.

As it stands now, the City has projected that the rezoning will bring over 4,000 units to Jerome Avenue. The Coalition is demanding that the rezoning be reduced in scale to cut this number in half. As numerous speakers made clear, the larger the upzoning the greater the potential for it to permanently change the housing market around Jerome – and not for the better. Currently, the vast majority of what gets built in the community is subsidized, with a relatively high percentage of units serving households under 30% Area Median Income (AMI). But an upzoning of the scale currently proposed threatens to change the market so that developers are less likely to take subsidy – meaning more market rate units and fewer affordable ones as time goes on. Reducing the scale of the rezoning would help reduce this risk, ensuring that a greater share of the new units that are built continue to be built with subsidy and therefore aimed at lower income families, the way they are today.

A No Net Loss Policy for the neighborhoods around Jerome would provide an additional level of protection against displacement by ensuring that the community does not lose more affordable housing than it gains following the rezoning. While the City has committed to creating affordable units through Mandatory Inclusionary Housing (MIH) and continued subsidy, it must ensure that even more affordable units leaving regulations or forgoing subsidies as the market changes do not offset these. A No Net Loss program would prevent this – by tracking the creation and loss of affordable units by income level over time, and creating a mechanism to hold the City accountable for both the positive and negative sides of the rezoning results.

These are not abstract concepts; these are actions that will effect the lives of real people in the Bronx, as was made clear by countless residents standing up to tell their stories and asking, “If I have to leave the Bronx, where am I going to go?”

The City Council has the power to say no to this rezoning, or to adapt it to better meet the community’s demands. Previous rezonings can be used as a precedent. The scale of both the East New York and East Harlem rezonings were reduced by the City Council – in the case of East Harlem by close to 25%. As part of the East New York rezoning, the City agreed to create a taskforce to explore basement legalization, while in East Harlem the City agreed to include the neighborhood in its pilot “Partners in Preservation” initiative. There is ample precedent for enacting the types of demands that the Bronx Coalition is asking for and the Council must use its power to make them real. As Councilmember Vanessa Gibson said at the hearing, “This is about the future of the Bronx.” She’s right and the Council has a vital decision to make in what that future will ultimately look like. Or as a Bronx Coalition member put it, “We are counting on you for help, please don’t let us down.”

Christopher Walters, ANHD’s Rezoning Technical Assistance Coordinator

East Harlem Stakeholders Demand No Vote at CPC Rezoning Hearing

Citing the City’s Divergence from the East Harlem Neighborhood Plan, Residents and Stakeholders Urge the City Planning Commission to Vote No on the East Harlem Rezoning

On Wednesday afternoon, at a packed venue, the City Planning Commission (CPC) held their public hearing on the proposed East Harlem rezoning. The CPC hearing comes after both Community Board 11 and Gale Brewer, the Manhattan Borough President, voted no on the proposed rezoning, and the bulk of the testimony heard from the East Harlem community on Wednesday strongly encouraged the CPC to do the same. 

In East Harlem the process preceding The Department of City Planning (DCP)’s proposed rezoning started with the promise of a new, community-driven planning model, with the community unveiling its own neighborhood plan in advance of the City. This plan was started in 2015 when City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito brought together local stakeholders in the formation of a steering committee tasked with crafting a comprehensive plan identifying the neighborhood’s goals and needs. After months of community engagement, consensus-building, and dedicated work, the steering committee – led by the Speaker’s Office, Community Board, Community Voices Heard (CVH), and Borough President Brewer – unveiled their vision with the East Harlem Neighborhood Plan (EHNP), including a broad set of demands across 232 recommendations. While many participants have stressed that the final product still needs improvement, the idea was that DCP would work with the community to improve the East Harlem Neighborhood Plan and make it a reality. Instead, the feeling from the community, Community Board, and Borough President’s Office is that the EHNP has been largely ignored.

This is why the Community Board voted no to the rezoning, with recommendations, and why Gale Brewer voted a firmer no, with no recommendations. This is why CVH members and other East Harlem residents came out in force to demand the CPC vote no. As one CVH member put it, “This is about the life and death of East Harlem. I don’t know how DCP could come up with a plan totally opposite of what the community proposed.” Speakers pointed out that DCP’s plan allows much higher density than the EHNP and does not include adequate anti-displacement protections for existing tenants, appropriate investments for NYCHA properties that are in dire need, and the creation of truly affordable housing that meets the income requirements of current East Harlem residents – all priorities clearly laid out in the EHNP.

The de Blasio administration has claimed that it’s interested in a more comprehensive approach to neighborhood rezonings – one that meaningfully involves communities in the planning process to better ensure the priorities of local residents are met. If they’re serious about this, then East Harlem is a chance to get it right. The CPC should heed the call of the community and its representatives and vote no. The City still has time to step back and ensure that the priorities laid out by the community – through much time and effort – are met. Whether this happens through a rezoning, or other City actions, is less important than respecting the community’s vision and working with them to help make it a reality.

Christopher Walters, ANHD’s Rezoning Technical Assistance Coordinator

The City’s Decision to Begin Jerome Avenue Rezoning Public Review Process After Community Opposition March Highlights the Significant Work Ahead

Yesterday afternoon the City Planning Commission kicked off the Uniform Land Use Review Procedure (ULURP) for the City’s proposed Jerome Avenue rezoning, beginning the seven-month public review process that will culminate in a binding vote by the City Council. Yet the decision to start ULURP came just days after the community marched in opposition, demanding that the City immediately stop the rezoning from moving forward until it has firm commitments in place to address displacement, deep affordability, and labor standard concerns. The fact that the City chose to start ULURP regardless highlights the significant work they have ahead to meet the neighborhood’s vision.

The Bronx Coalition for a Community Vision has engaged with the City for over two years, trying to facilitate the creation of a community-driven plan that truly meets the priorities of the neighborhood. In that time, they’ve made clear that no rezoning can move forward without firm commitments to ensuring building truly affordable housing, creating local, career-track jobs, and anti-displacement polices that are inclusive and representative of the community. The Coalition is asking the City to consider the effects that potential federal budget cuts might have on New York City’s affordable housing programs and urging the City to hold off on any rezoning until the new federal budget has passed and firm financial commitments can be made. In addition, the Coalition points out that the City is already building affordable housing around Jerome Avenue at a fast enough pace to reach its numbers without a neighborhood rezoning, and requests more explanation as to why a major increase in density and market-rate housing is needed at all.

As Community Action for Safe Apartments (CASA), a project of New Settlement Apartments leader Carmen Vega-Rivera – one of the hundreds of New Yorkers to attend the march on Saturday – said, “We the community have been meeting and planning for over two years to come up with a platform that meets the needs of the community. The fact that the city is moving forward with their plan and not our plan speaks volumes about the City’s priorities. The City still has time to stop this plan.” The City also has time to get this right. As the Coalition has repeatedly made clear they are not simply saying no to change; they are instead trying to demonstrate a new model for real community investment through rezoning. This represents an important opportunity for the City, and getting it right is the only timeline that should matter.

Photos Courtesy of Community Action for Safe Apartments (CASA)

Christopher Walters, ANHD’s Rezoning Technical Assistance Coordinator

East Harlem Residents Push Back on City Rezoning Plan at Packed Community Board Hearing

This is among the questions community residents and local organizations raised over and over again last night. In addressing their issues and concerns around DCP’s plan, speakers stressed the numerous ways it differs from the East Harlem Neighborhood Plan. These include, most pressingly, questions around the affordability of new construction, particularly on public land, and the need for strong housing preservation strategies. The EHNP includes recommendations for permanent and deeply affordable units on public sites using locally based non-profit developers and community land trusts to help achieve these goals – a key aspect of the plan’s overall call for 50% of all new housing in the neighborhood to be affordable. The plan calls for a Certificate of No Harassment program (CONH) to be put in place in East Harlem. The plan also calls for a $200 million investment in NYCHA repairs and preservation in the neighborhood as a down payment for the $1 billion local need. These are just some of the key priorities the East Harlem Neighborhood Plan puts forward that are all unfortunately absent from DCP’s current rezoning plan in any meaningful fashion. These are all key priorities that community members stressed had to be included before the City’s plans could move forward. In addition, speakers highlighted that DCP’s proposed zoning includes significantly higher densities than the EHNP recommended.

Community members and organizations engaged in the East Harlem Neighborhood Plan in a good faith effort to find solutions for the neighborhood’s needs. They gave their time and energy to make this happen. As one Community Voices Heard member put it, “I feel like the City is ignoring two years of visioning sessions, and man, that feels like I wasted my time.” This shouldn’t be the case. ANHD believes in community-based planning as a way to provide local residents meaningful control over the future of their neighborhoods. This doesn’t mean the East Harlem Neighborhood Plan cannot be strengthened and made more reflective of what the community needs; it can and it should be. But what shouldn’t happen is the City paying lip service to the EHNP while making its recommendations weaker. East Harlem is a chance to get it right and set a new standard for neighborhood rezonings moving forward citywide. The groundwork has been laid already. Now the City must ensure it hasn’t been in vain.