Talking Point
City development agenda starts in your backyard
By Simeon Bankoff
New York City’s Zoning Resolution determines the physical height and shape of the city by guiding development. Among the various existing zoning districts, contextual zones have been specifically drafted to produce buildings that are consistent with existing neighborhood character. In an attempt to preserve their quality of life and the scale and character of their neighborhoods, communities throughout New York City, including Chelsea/Clinton/Hell’s Kitchen’s Community Board 4, have worked long and hard to alter their zoning appropriately. Over the past few years, due to the unprecedented development pressure affecting every neighborhood in the city, the Department of City Planning and community groups have worked together to create balanced, contextual zoning on thousands of blocks in all five boroughs.
Numerous other neighborhoods have been working, in some cases for years, to try to gain these protections. Unfortunately, these community-based efforts were recently threatened by a series of Zoning Text amendments proposed by the American Institute of Architects, New York Chapter, a private organization representing 4,200 Manhattan-based design professionals. These proposals sought to undo the hard work of community planners and institute blanket rules that not only allow, but encourage out-of-context development. Fortunately, earlier this month the AIA withdrew its proposal at the behest of the Department of City Planning. It is nevertheless worthwhile to examine the implications of this effort, in order to better understand the process of how development in our neighborhoods can be influenced in our city’s race to the future.
In addition to objecting to specific elements of the proposal, which sought to institute “one size fits all” rules to our varied neighborhoods, the Historic Districts Council was deeply concerned about the way in which these changes were proposed. Typically, a change in the citywide Zoning Text is proposed by City Planning, which then bears the responsibility of presenting the proposal to each of New York’s 59 Community Boards to seek their advice and consent. While this might sound onerous, every community board has a DCP liaison who serves as the voice of the agency in the area, and should be able to easily address area-specific concerns. Often community liaisons, like local police sergeants or local parks managers, are among the most knowledgeable people available about their aspect of community concerns and can even serve as effective advocates for area residents to city government.
However, because these changes were being proposed by a private group, the AIA was responsible for arranging outreach and presentations about them, which resulted in most of the city’s 59 boards not getting a presentation or explanation of this proposal, despite its potential to affect the majority of New York City residents and property owners. Even worse, the first public disclosure of their effort was in late October 2007, which did not allow for the issue to be brought up at community board meetings until December, during the holiday season. In addition to community boards and neighborhood organizations, elected officials were also caught off guard by these amendments and their timetable. Only once public concern began to mount was the initially projected approval date of Jan. 7 revised.
HDC first heard about this proposal in mid-November from one of our neighborhood partners, who we depend on to alert us to their concerns about the physical character of their communities. We quickly spread the word among other partners; singling out constituents who sat on community boards, many of whom were completely unaware of this proposal despite sitting on their board’s zoning or land-use committees. This effort resulted in some boards taking a hard public look at the proposal and othersreconsidering the issue after dismissing it as not impacting their community. Indeed, it ended in a positive exercise in community-building when we convened an overflow crowd of concerned citizen activists from all five boroughs, as well as elected officials and their representatives, in the auditorium of the Institute of Classical Architecture to examine the proposal.
HDC presented the proposal and explained its possible effects on our city’s neighborhoods, pointing out the potential impacts it would have on low- and high-scale residential areas by maximizing allowable building bulk at the expense of a community’s light and air. Queens Councilmember Tony Avella, chairperson of the Council’s Zoning Committee, stated strongly that this proposal needed to be stopped in its tracks because of the dangerous precedent it would set for other private groups seeking to take control of the development agenda in New York. Today the architects, tomorrow the builders.
The municipal decision-makers heard our call and responded, and the AIA withdrew the proposal. We applaud this decision and welcome a constructive, inclusive discussion of the Zoning Resolution to better help create the city we all want to live in. There are many real concerns facing New York City in the coming years: an aging infrastructure, the continuing erosion of neighborhood character, a dearth of open space and affordable housing, to name just the most obvious. It falls to all New Yorkers who are concerned about the continued health of our city to get involved, make our voices heard and determine that a future New York that we all want to see comes to pass. This is why the Historic Districts Council is sponsoring a conference at the New School on Sat., March 8 called “Preservation 2030” responding to the Mayor’s plan for the future (see our Website at www.hdc.org for details and to register). If we just stand idly by, these decisions will be made without us and as the saying goes, “if you’re not at the table, you’re on the menu”.
Bankoff is executive director of the city’s Historic Districts Council
