By Matt Chaban 9/14/12 1:17pm

In the Rezone

Does a big street call for big buildings? (Bridge & Tunnel Club)

West Harlem Rezoning Still Too Big, Say Locals Hoping Council Will Fight Back

Recently, the City Planning Commission approved plans for the rezoning of West Harlem, a plan meant to protect the smaller-scale of the neighborhood. Some locals believe it still allows for outsized development in some places, specifically along the 145th Street corridor. They have written a letter to the City Council, which will make the final decision on the rezoning in the next month or so, urging it to reduce the height of buildings on 145th Street. The letter, provided to The Observer by a concerned citizen, can be read in full after the jump. Read More

By Matt Chaban 9/07/12 10:49am

In the Rezone

11 Photos

Keeping It Contextual

Keeping It Contextual: City Planning Commission Approves Rezonings in West Harlem, Bed-Stuy

It was a busy day at the City Planning Commission Wednesday. Not only did the commissioners debate the upzoning of the Chelsea Market, which they unanimously approved, but they also approved the downzoning of two historic neighborhoods, West Harlem and Bed-Stuy. The contextual rezonings seek to limit development on side streets, which tend to be chock-full of 100-year-old brownstones, while directing new development—with affordable housing!—to the broad avenues running through the neighborhoods. Read More

By Matt Chaban 6/27/12 2:37pm

In the Rezone

Right-sized on Broadway. (DCP)

West Harlem Shuffle: Scott Stringer Approves Low-Rise Rezoning He Called for Five Years Ago

Back in 2007, in order to win his vote for Columbia’s contentious Manhattanville rezoning, Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer got the city to agree to rezone the blocks north of the new 17-acre campus as well, a stanch against over development. Today, the borough president gets to vote on the rezoning he requested for West Harlem, and he is touting it as a triumph of community planning.

“This rezoning reflects the input of thousands of stakeholders in West Harlem and five years of work toward crafting a community-based planning consensus that could be a model for the rest of our City,” Mr. Stringer said in an email. “It is a promise kept to the residents of West Harlem—and a proud moment for all who are involved.”

Like many parts of the city, the zoning has not been updated since 1961. The Department of City Planning has created, through a multi-year consultation with the community, a contextual zoning package that will largely maintain the same density of development in the neighborhood while imposing new height limits and street wall requirements to ensure that sliver buildings and other uncharacteristic buildings cannot be built. Read More

By Laura Kusisto 2/02/11 12:50am

Features

The World’s Biggest College Town

On a gray Friday in January, a largely empty church on 121st Street and Broadway was immaculate in the way of a rarely used living room. Even on a slushy winter morning, Corpus Christi’s floors gleamed.

At noon sharp, in the rectory next door, the Rev. Raymond Rafferty, the church’s pastor, leaned forward, checked his Read More

By Emily Geminder 10/05/10 11:43pm

Block By Block

ViVa Manhattanville in West Harlem

Amid Columbia University’s ongoing border skirmishes–the result of its planned 17-acre expansion northward–even the name of the embattled neighborhood is contested.

Some favor Mahattanville, a moniker harking back to the 19th-century Quaker village that sprang up, as contemporary guidebooks put it, a whole “eight miles from New York.” Others contend the area is simply an Read More

By Jimmy Vielkind 12/19/08 7:24pm

Death of a Property-Rights Warrior

ALBANY—Jordi Reyes-Montblanc, the former chairman of Community Board 9, died yesterday. He was 65.

Pat Jones, the current chairwoman of the board, announced the death in an e-mail to board members and others in the neighborhood.

Reyes-Montblanc fled Cuba for the United States to escape communism, and was a staunch advocate of property rights Read More