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New York City embarked on a land use and transportation study of the
125th Street corridor, from Harlem to Hudson Rivers. Its stated goal
was to rezone the area from 124th to 126th Streets to encourage a
more diverse set of land uses at a higher density that what was
allowed.
Many properties along the street are underutilized one-story
commercial buildings or mixed-use buildings where the upper floors
are sealed and/or covered with multi-story advertising panels. The
rezoning would provide property owners with a greater incentive to
improve their holdings.
Harlem CDC provided urban planning and design assistance to the
Department of City Planning, various community groups, and the three
Community Boards that cover this area. Some zoning recommendations
included creating bonus floor area for developers if they provide
local arts/cultural groups low-cost space onsite, providing bonus
floor area if income targeted housing is produced onsite, spreading
increased density more evenly across the corridor instead of
concentrating it in the core of Harlem, and instituting provisions
to protect residential tenants and local businesses from undue
displacement.
The City Council passed a modified version of the Department of City
Planning’s rezoning plan, incorporating many of the community’s
goals outlined above, such as reducing density in the core,
providing a bonus system for developers who build arts/cultural
space and income targeting housing, and developing a fund to pay for
relocation costs of local businesses displaced because of the
rezoning action. View the plan at
www.nyc.gov/html/dcp/html/125th/index.shtml
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