Jerome Avenue Rezoning Approved by City Planning Despite Overwhelming Community Opposition; Now City Council to Vote

Despite overwhelming disapproval and community opposition, New York City Department of City Planning has approved the Jerome Avenue Rezoning Plan and has been sent to the city council for a vote where it is pretty much guaranteed to pass.

You can begin to say goodbye to the neighborhoods along the rezoning area as they will undoubtedly be forever changed as developers will begin to knock down and build up.

City Limits writes:

“De la Uz voted against the rezoning. While acknowledging the benefits of the Certificate of No Harassment pilot program and the creation of a universal right-to-counsel for low-income tenants in housing court, she said the city’s proposal “lacks a thorough and thoughtful analysis of the increased displacement risk for the existing rent-stabilized housing stock.”

She also said that while she supports “activating the corridor and limiting conflicting uses,” she felt the city didn’t have an adequate plan in place to support the relocation of auto-sector businesses that she says will be displaced by the rezoning. “No comprehensive analysis was done of how those auto-businesses are interdependent and who is in those jobs,” she said. “The city continues to reduce areas zoned for manufacturing throughout the city without a comprehensive assessment of how those changes may cumulatively impact goods and services New Yorkers need and the decent jobs [that could be] lost, [employment accessible] often to immigrants and individuals with limited education. This is inconsistent with the mayor’s 100,000 jobs plan.”

With the City Planning Commission’s sanction, the plan now moves to the City Council, which has 50 days to take action on the proposal. All eyes are now on Bronx councilmembers Vanessa Gibson and Fernando Cabrera, whose districts cover the rezoning footprint, to negotiate the plan’s final details.

It’s a sad day when the city ignores the will of the people who will be directly impacted by such a poorly thought out rezoning.