Don't block my landmark, bro. (Getty)

Add a few more names to the growing list of people concerned about the speed with which the city is executing the Midtown East Rezoning—ones that carry some serious political clout. In addition to the community boards, a few civic groups and local Councilman Dan Garodnick (who's vote will be crucial to get the rezoning through the City Council), four new Midtown reps have just sent a letter to the mayor saying the rezoning needs more time to be perfected.

"Because this rezoning is so important, it is critical that it is done correctly the first time and is responsive to the concerns of the area’s current stakeholders even as it lays the groundwork for the area’s future," Congresswoman Caroline Maloney, Assemblyman Dan Qart and state senators Liz Krueger and Brad Hoylman write. They ask the Department of City Planning to withdraw the plan currently in the works, which is expected to be certified in the coming weeks, "in order to permit sufficient time for community input."

The Midtown East Rezoning seeks to give developers incentives to tear down their aging buildings by adding new air rights to certain blocks in Midtown, with an emphasis on Park Avenue and the area around Grand Central. Locals fear that there will not be sufficient public benefit and that the plan is a giveaway to developers. Air rights will have to be purchased from the city, which would fund new open space improvements and mass transit projects, though there is skepticism the project would generate enough funds to create meaningful investments.

A City Planning spokeswoman was not immediately available to comment, but when Mr. Garodnick raised similar objections, she said:

As with all of our projects, we have been carefully analyzing the area and meeting with area stakeholders, including the community boards, to discuss the issues and proposed policy solutions so that an appropriate long‐term zoning framework for East Midtown can be created. There is ample time to complete all the necessary review and analyses for this project, and we are committed to continue working closely with the community and other stakeholders as the process moves forward.

The four politicians lay out a number of specific concerns they have about the plan as it is currently configured, including more information about public realm improvements, a study of adverse impacts, a commitment by developers to build sustainable projects and concern over the fate of numerous landmarks, both officially designated and those not, but otherwise noteworthy.

One request is particularly interesting, and no doubt alarming to the development community, given how open it would be to debate and interpretation: "a special review process for buildings that could disrupt iconic features of New York’s skyline such as the Empire State and Chrysler buildings." Talk about encasing the skyline in amber, precisely what this rezoning is meant to undo.

"While we support the concept of encouraging the development of more iconic Class A office buildings in East Midtown," the four conclude, "we ask that your office and the Department of City Planning heed the community’s request to allow more time for deliberation and consideration of the community’s questions and recommendations to ensure that this plan serves the neighborhood, both current and future."

Towers will be slightly smaller than initially proposed following an agreement between the borough president and Trinity. (Trinity Real Estate)

The new towers in Hudson Square are going to look more, well, square.

That is after Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer wrangled a deal with Trinity Church to reduce the size of new towers as part of a rezoning the rectors are undertaking in the formerly industrial neighborhood just north of the Holland Tunnel. This was among the concessions extracted by Mr. Stringer before giving the project his conditional approval, which he signed yesterday as part of the rezoning's public review process.

The buildings will be a bit wider, though, so as not to lose their density, but they can only rise to 290 feet, rather than 320 feet. Stocky towers instead of slender spires, basically. But that is in many ways fitting with the areas already stolid building stock of former printing plants, which typified the neighborhood for a century before it became a popular haven for Soho expats and minor celebrities (hello James Gandolfini and Lou Reed!). 

Hoping to capitalize on the newfound popularity of the neighborhood, Trinity's rezoning seeks to add housing stock to what was primarily an warren of offices and light industry—albeit a still very popular one, with the likes of Viacom, Edelman, Saatchi, New York magazine and the Daily News among the media and tech firms calling the area home. The rezoning calls for creating between 2,000 and 3,200 new apartments spread across some 20 possible development sites.

To help sop up all those new residents, or at least their kids, the borough president has also redoubled the call for a new school, which Trinity has tentatively committed to. He also wants more opportunities for open space in the district to accommodate the new residents, which should be undertaken with consultation from the community, Mr. Stringer said.

“I am proud today to announce my recommendation for conditional approval of the Hudson Square Special District, which will address many long standing community concerns,” Mr. Stringer said in a statement. “I believe the modifications agreed to today will bring this proposal further in line with sound planning and community preferences.”

Another big piece of the agreement is the elimination of an area known as Subdistrict B, that would have restricted building heights near to the Holland Tunnel. Some landlords within the area, most notably Edison Properties, had complained about Trinity telling them what to do with their properties. Now those developers could seek taller towers, such as one Edison has proposed for a lot it owns near the Holland Tunnel.

Trinity has also agreed to the Borough President's request that any hotels with more than 100 units require a special permit, a provision meant to limit hotel development (while also giving the hotel worker's union sway through the City Council over any new towers).

“The proposed modifications will help to align the proposed rezoning with community concerns,” Mr. Stringer said. "I am pleased that Trinity Church was willing to not only provide a new public school prior to ULURP commencing, but agreed to work to address outstanding issues."

For its part, Trinity is satisfied with the changes.  "I wish to thank you for your thoughtful suggestions for modifying the proposed Special Hudson Square District and your recommendation that the proposed Special District be approved," Trinity Real Estate president Justin Pizer wrote Mr. Stringer on Monday in a letter the company shared with The Observer. "Your recommendation is a vote for the balanced growth of Hudson Square as an active mixed-use community."

Next, the rezoning will have to be approved by the City Planning Commission, followed by the City Council, which has the final say. Previously, the local community board gave a conditional disapproval to the project with many of the same open-space and height concerns that Mr. Stringer reached an agreement on. Their anxieties may well have helped him strike this deal.

Now if only anyone could do something about all the honking from the tunnel traffic.

Correction: Edison Properties' site is not within Subdistrict B. Rather, this was a carve out meant to protect a row of historic rowhouses in the area that might actually now be susceptible to demolition and redevelopment. The reason for this exception was not immediately clear (The Observer has put in a request to the Borough President's office for clarification). Meanwhile, a rep for Edison explains that the firm is still dissatisfied with the rezoning and will be testifying about the firm's reservations tomorrow.

Back to the streets. (HUD/Flickr)

Friday was Adolfo Carrion’s last day working for the Obama administration. He had been ensconced for the past two years in a corner office on the 35th floor of the Jacob K. Javits Federal Building downtown, serving as director of HUD Region 2, which is where The Observer met him a few weeks ago to discuss the president‘s flagging urban agenda.

Bronx paraphernalia filled the glass-line space. Near the doorway was a green highway sign, WELCOME TO THE BRONX. On a bookshelf behind his desk, beside family photos, books (Sonia Sotomayor’s biography, Thomas Friedman’s The World Is Flat) and hardhats of special significance, rested  a miniature subway sign for the 161st Street-Yankees Stadium stop. Along the wall stood a T.V. tuned to CNBC, framed newspaper clippings, and not one but two Yankees groundbreaking shovels, one of which had a bat for a handle. Pinstriped paraphernalia was everywhere, declaring the Manhattan-born, Bronx-bred politician’s on-field allegiance.

Mr. Carrion left the Bronx to go work for the administration, first on the campaign trail, then as the inaugural director of the White House Office of Urban Affairs. He left that position to come work at HUD, a move many saw as a demotion, though he insists it was always part of his plan.

"My plan was to help the president open this office, coordinate the agencies, start the conversation and then come back home to continue working here in New York City," Mr. Carrion said, referring to his time at the White House. "And that's what I am doing—so happy to be home. So happy to be working the front lines. I've always been a local guy, I think all politics and planning is local. The economy plays out locally. I'm happy to be home to the greatest city in the world."

Mr. Carrion said that the revelation that he had received a renovation to his home on City Island from an architect who had business with the city while he was Bronx Borough president had nothing to do with his move back to New York in 2010. Nor did a December fine of $10,000 from the city's Conflicts of Interest Board impact his decision to leave HUD now, which he announced in an email to friends and colleagues at the end of December.

"God no, of course not," Mr. Carrion said. "That's done, over with, much ado with almost nothing. Some agencies, in my estimation, have to justify their existence. Let's close that book."

Mr. Carrion, who was once considered a mayoral contender befor Mayor Bloomberg seized his third term, would not rule out the possibility or running for public office again—"I never say never," he said—but his bigger priority is launching a consultancy that will continue the work he has been doing as cities czar and HUD regional director.

"I think having visited so many cities around the country, folks need help to get themselves repositioned for this global economy for the growth that is occurring." Mr. Carrion said. "We don't know how to count in the United States, so when we say there will be another 120 to 140 million more Americans in the next 30 to 40 years, it will likely be more than that. We need to figure out how to house, how to educate, how to create clean water, clean air, safe food, safe communities, business opportunities for those people. There is so much to do, we can't afford to wait. I'm looking forward to working in that space."

He said he would be announcing some new partnerships "very soon."

Mayor of the Capital of Innovation. (Getty)

The main focus of the Mayor Michael Bloomberg's State of the City speech today may have been on taking another crack at fixing the city's schools and streamlining its government, but this is still Mike Bloomberg, remaker of skylines and rebuilder of waterfronts, so there was bound to be a lot of development goodies studding the speech.

Aside from the Kingsbridge Armory announcement, which was previewed yesterday, the proposal that most jumped out was one for the heart of Midtown. "In the area around Grand Central, we’ll work with the City Council on a package of regulatory changes and incentives that will attract new investment, new companies and new jobs," the mayor said.

That was all he said about the proposal, in fact. The Observer reached out to City Hall and the Department of City Planning a few hours ago, but so far we have not heard back on what this plan could be. A rezoning? Rent breaks? Tax breaks? Hard to say exactly, this being a highly developed area commanding the highest commercial rents in the entire country.

Still, with the World Trade Center and the Far West Side developing at a nice clip, some in the real estate industry have complained that the still grand but not quite central midcentury towers of Park and Lex may become ugly step children in the brave new New York. With East Side Access in the works, providing an easier commute to the station, it would make sense to find new ways to continue growing the heart of the city's central business district.

Among the other marquee projects outlined were new fine arts and film incubators, new incentives to keep the Hunts Point produce market from crossing the Hudson into Jersey, and, of course, ongoing support at the World Trade Center to see that project through. (Even if the mayor is butting heads with the governor over the opening date of the 9/11 museum.)

There is a new mega-mall coming to Parkchester in the Bronx and a new mega-development in Astoria—that appears to be the long-delayed Hallets Point project, which began making news again at the end of last year. And there will be rezonings and relocations.

"We’ll begin rezoning East Fordham Road to allow for more private sector investment and explore economic development possibilities on Webster Avenue. To do that, we’re working with a group of neighbors we call the Bronx Quad: the New York Botanical Garden, the Bronx Zoo, Montefiore Medical Center and of course, the emerging basketball powerhouse, Fordham University."

[...]

“In Queens, Jet Blue will open its new headquarters in Long Island City and an expansion of the Queens Museum of Art will double its size. On Staten Island, we’ll create a new blue-collar-friendly industrial business zone, we’ll redesign the zoo’s aquarium, and we’ll help break ground on a major apartment and retail development at the Homeport, creating more than 1,100 construction jobs.

“In Brooklyn, more good blue-collar jobs will come to the waterfront both in Sunset Park and at the Navy Yard."

There will also be even more tourists, the mayor hopes.

The most far-reaching proposal may come from the streamlining section of the speech, where the mayor introduced the Partnership to Build NYC, an expansion of the current Department of Buildings programs to speed up building approvals. "Our goal is ten days or less–and we’re not talking about cutting corners, we’re talking about cutting red tape," the mayor said.

He also said he wants "streamlining City Planning’s review of land use applications." Could this mean the overhaul of ULURP everyone from community advocates to Big Real Estate have been clamoring for?

And not to ignore the streets, there will be more slow zones and more bike lanes—just in time for bike share—so the bikelash may indeed continue into 2012.

mchaban [at] observer.com | @MC_NYC

A real fixer upper. (Wikimedia Commons)

When the city rezoned Fourth Avenue in Brooklyn in 2005, it tried to nudge retail development onto Fourth Avenue in Brooklyn, via the natural selection. Developers built huge residential towers, but the street wall remained blank, empty of retail, a blight for pedestrians. The Department of City Planning is revising its plans for the strip, hoping to ensure any future development will be better, but Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz, as is his wont, wants more.

The city's plan—submitted in late June of this year —demands that half of ground floor space in all new buildings be given over to retail. Indeed, those nice condo's like Novo and Crest, would certainly be complemented by the reflected glow that nice shiny, post-modern retail stores can give.

The patch originally earmarked was Atlantic Avenue to 24th Street, Park Slope. Markowitz’ objective is extend that from Atlantic Avenue to the Atlantic Ocean in Bay Ridge.

"By guaranteeing more retail—and requiring developers to incorporate enhanced streetscapes and landscaping with each new project, we are bringing together all of the elements needed to make Fourth Avenue what it was always intended to be: a majestic, user-friendly, economically viable and safe thoroughfare for all brooklynites, new yorkers, and visitors to enjoy," Mr. Markowitz told the City Council in testimony yesterday at a meeting of the zoning committee.

He applauded the plans to require retail, but he also wants prohibitions against certain types of retails, such as technical schools and mental and dental labs. "wW believe these uses don’t lend themselves to a lively and engaging environment—and are not necessarily even pedestrian-friendly," Mr. Markowitz said. The planning department said such requirements would be onerous for property owners, but the borough president hopes to sway the council, which has the final say over the project and will vote later this month.

Fourth Avenue residents are accustomed to the drone of traffic that graces its corridor. If the latest plans to "jazz up" the avenue transpire, Mr. Markowitz hopes the sound of tires can be intermingled with that of clinking tills.

realestate@observer.com

Too much? (Forgotten New York)

Yesterday, the City Council voted to suburbanize another piece of Queens. This time it was the neighborhoods of Sunnyside and Woodside getting rezoned. The plan helps preserve the neighborhoods' character by limiting new development to a few main thoroughfares, but as arguably two of the best neighborhoods in the city, limits newcomers. "The pace of development in Sunnyside and Woodside has increased in recent years for many reasons, including its attractive and well-kept streetscapes, bustling commercial corridors, and convenient mass transit to and from Manhattan," local Councilman Jimmy Van Bremmer said in a release, which you can read in full after the jump. "By taking this action today, we will prevent development that is out of character while protecting the low density nature of much of the area."

Better get in while the getting is good.

The Sunnyside –Woodside rezoning has been a long time coming and has been one of my top priorities since I took office in January 2010. It has been a collaboration of many entities – community groups, City Planning, the Community Board, my office, and many more.

This 130 block rezoning goes a long way towards preserving the character of our neighborhoods for generations to come. The previous zoning, completed 50 years ago, all too frequently allowed smaller one and two family homes to be torn down in favor of unsightly and out of scale buildings that hurt the stability of these great neighborhoods.

The population of Sunnyside and Woodside is growing in both number and diversity.  The pace of development in Sunnyside and Woodside has increased in recent years for many reasons, including its attractive and well-kept streetscapes, bustling commercial corridors, and convenient mass transit to and from Manhattan. By taking this action today, we will prevent development that is out of character while protecting the low density nature of much of the area.

One of the most exciting aspects of this rezoning is the lifting of restrictions of sidewalk cafes along Queens Boulevard while also allowing for small, unenclosed cafes on portions of Skillman Avenue. This will aid small businesses along Skillman Avenue and Queens Boulevard by increasing the walkability of those streets, bringing added vibrancy to these commercial strips. The increased foot traffic will bring more people out to shop at surrounding stores, improving our local economy. I am proud to be a part of this rezoning and proud to help preserve the character of District 26.

This plan was developed through extensive collaboration between City Planning, Community Board 2, the community residents and myself. Thanks to my constituents for sharing their views, including the over 100 who attended my town hall on this rezoning last June. Thank you to Speaker Quinn, Land-Use chair Leroy Comrie, Zoning and Planning Subcommittee Chair Mark Weprin, the Land Use Staff, including Danielle DiCerbo and Gail Benjamin. Thank you to Community Board 2 chair Joe Conley and land use chair Lisa Deller. Thank you to the Department of City Planning, including Commissioner Amanda Burden, Queens Planning Commissioner John Young, Tom Smith and Penny Lee. Finally, thank you to my staff, including Joe Kenton and Matt Wallace for all of their hard work through the entire process.

mchaban [at] observer.com | @MC_NYC

The New Jersey-based developer owns a parking lot at 249 West 28th Street, where it plans to build a large apartment tower with an affordable housing component, but needs the area rezoned. Edison and the Department of City Planning have submitted concurrent proposals to rezone the former Fur District, spanning from Sixth to Eighth avenues and 28th to 30th streets to allow for some large residential development, while trying to preserve cheap office space and forestall new hotel development.

The proposal is likely to stir up a decades-old questions about the future of midtown west, an area once dominated by garment manufacturers and now dotted with empty cheap office lofts, with condos and hotels in between. A previous proposal to rezone the Garment District to allow for more office development has stalled. New apartment towers south of Penn Station could, however, create additional pressure to rezone the Garment District, even as Brookfield is set to erect a massive mixed-use development at 33rd Street and rumblings of progress are also being felt at Hudson Yards--all likely to bring an influx of residents to surrounding areas. 

In an apparent effort to preempt some of that opposition, the proposal requires developers to replace any office space over 50,000 square feet that is lost to demolition. Plus, a few more well-moneyed condo and rental dwellers can only help the office market, right?

"Adding a measure of residential development to these business districts," said planning commissioner Amanda Burden in a statement, "can foster a more lively working environment while preserving and protecting existing office space and distinctive building stock." (The new zone will also restrict development of hotels with more than 100 rooms, a move that could rankle developers, who have targeted it as a prime hotel development area.) 

Community Board Five will hold a meeting to discuss the rezoning proposal next Wednesday. Edison Properties has not yet prepared a statement or appointed a spokesperson. 

lkusisto@observer.com 

Update: An earlier version mistated that Community Board Six would review the proposal. 

Now, the City Planning Commission is working to keep the neighborhood its quaint self while also finding a little room for all those newcomers, plus a little affordable housing. On Monday, the commission certified a plan to rezone a 130-block area in Sunnyside and neighboring Woodside stretching for five subway stops along Roosevelt Avenue.

The plan has all the usual hallmarks. Much of the two neighborhoods will be downzoned to maintain the scale and character of current housing stock while protecting it from teardowns and overdevelopment. In exchange, land on major thoroughfares will be upzoned to accomodate denser housing near transit corridors--in this case Roosevelt Avenue and Queens Boulevard--as well as to encourage affordability through the use of the city's inclusionary housing program. This provides a development bonus if 20 percent of units are made affordable to low- and moderate-income families.

"The Sunnyside and Woodside neighborhoods have seen their populations grow in recent years because of their proximity to mass transit, attractive and vibrant streetscapes and convenient commercial corridors," commission chair Amanda Burden said in a release. "But we must ensure that these neighborhoods grow in the right places."

The neighborhood has not seen any major zoning changes since 1974.

One unusual twist to this effort is that a special commercial district will be established on Queens Boulevard to encourage outdoor cafes, bolstering a strip that has never fully taken to the yuppie charms of Park Slope and the Lower East Side.

But what would Edward Glaeser think? In his latest book, he argues that zoning measures like this discourage development where people want it most, driving up the cost of living in vibrant, sutainable cities. The Observer has wondered much the same thing, if the protection of Queens downscale, suburban character is not actually bad for New York.  

With the successful rezoning of Auburndale, Oakland Gardens and Hollis Hills in Queens last fall, which was at the time the largest rezoning ever undertaken, and the recent certification of South Jamaica, which at 530 blocks is now the biggest, it seems the administration is set on keeping things small and expensive, if also attractive.

mchaban [at] observer.com | @mc_nyo

Yet, as often happens with these sorts of complicated land-use actions, somebody feels left out. In this case, it is the Bowery Alliance of Neighbors, but the group has about as powerful an ally as one could hope for: Assembly Speaker Shelly Silver.

BAN, as the group is known--can you get more NIMBY than that!--want to cap tall buildings on the Bowery's eastern flank. Unlike the west side of the street, where none can rise above 120 feet, on the eastern sidewalk, developers can build about as high as they want. Hence outsized structures like the Bowery Hotel, New Museum, the new Cooper Union Building, and 52 East 4th Street (at right).

In a recent letter to Commission Chair Amanda Burden, Silver writes:

I believe that the east side of the Bowery deserves the same type of zoning to ensure that new buildings are of a size and scale that maintain the Bowery as the unique New York City thoroughfare that it is today.

[...]

The recent rezoning of the East Village/Lower East Side leaves out the east side of the Bowery, making it vulnerable to out-of-scale buildings that would diminish the consistency of the streetscape and the Bowery's historic character.

I strongly support the East Bowery Preservation Plan and I urge City Planning to study and rezone the east side of the Bowery to preserve and protect this historic and significant neighborhood in my district.

Will having one of the biggest machers in the city on its side help BAN protect the Bowery? Maybe not. The Department of City Planning prefers the current arrangement, as it encourages development in a concentrated area that has already seen a number of projects go up, creating a new normal. Rachaele Raynoff, a department spokeswoman, explained it this way in an email:

The Department of City Planning appreciates the dynamic nature of the historic Bowery, and its enduring strength as a vital, economically thriving corridor, having seen a range of new development activity and investment. The wide, centrally-located street continues to support a mix of commercial, residential, community and cultural uses, and has excellent access to mass transit. As the Department considers citywide policies on rezoning, we work hard to balance the varying needs of a broad and ever-expanding city and continually seek to strike a balance among uses, constituencies and planning strategies.

In other words, were the city to downzone everything, there would be nowhere left to build.

mchaban [at] observer.com / @mc_nyo

While much of the article is a by-the-numbers status report on what's built and what's stalled, there is an undercurrent emphasizing the importance of a well-designed street:

While the 2003 rezoning resulted in 859 new apartments -- either built, under development or in planning -- the design of many of the new buildings have come under attack. They've done little to improve the character of the neighborhood or make it more pedestrian friendly because they have parking garages, air vents or concrete slabs at street level rather than shops and cafes, critics say.

The result is that Fourth Avenue remains relatively desolate, attracting little of the street activity that has made Park Slope one of the most desirable neighborhoods in the city.

"If you're going to bring more people to Fourth Avenue, you want it to be a place that's more comfortable to walk," says City Councilman Brad Lander, whose district includes the east side of Fourth Avenue. "Some of these cement walls turn their backs on the neighborhood and make it a much scarier place to walk."

Clearly Jane Jacobs was not consulted in the planning process. The article acknowledges this in a way--this inforgraphic pretty much says it all--by noting how the Department of City Planning has since gone out of its way in ensuring more street-life and retail by requiring them in subsequent rezonings. "Absent a market for the retail space on a newly developing corridor, such a requirement at that time could have discouraged development altogether by making it financially infeasible," Brooklyn planning director Purnima Kapur told the Journal. The only problem is, now that all these unattractive and uninviting buildings have been built, who really wants to live in or around them?

By taking a shortcut early on, City Planning may have cost itself in the long-term. There is no reason not to think this won't get better over time, as more condos replace more auto body shops. But if those buildings continue to be of shlocky quality, the transformation may never fully take place.

Wandering Manhattan's Park Avenue, there actually aren't that many storefronts, arguably fewer than on Fourth Avenue, so a lack of retail can't reasonably be blamed for the difference. On both streets, the cars still whizz by at life-threatening speeds, so it's not the number of lanes or traffic, either. What makes Park Avenue so much nicer than Fourth is that there are nice buildings lining it. Its the same thing that makes Fifth and Seventh avenues just up the Slope so popular. Until the same can be said for Fourth Avenue, it will never be able to compete.

mchaban [at] observer.com / @mc_nyo