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City Council Approves Hudson Square Rezoning

Progress Made on South Village Landmarking, But Council Regresses on Hudson Square Protections.

On March 20th, the City Council voted to approve a deal brokered by City Council Speaker Quinn to rezone Hudson Square. The deal included some commitments for which community groups had fought long and hard, but ignored other concerns of residents of the area.

The rezoning allows high-rise residential development in Hudson Square for the first time (all residential development was prohibited by the old zoning). Groups like the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation (GVSHP) noted that such a change would increase development pressure upon the adjacent and already threatened South Village, which GVSHP and others had been fighting to landmark for years (only a third of which the city had landmarked, in spite of promises to consider the entire neighborhood). We urged that no rezoning be approved unless the South Village was also landmarked to protect it from the increased development pressure.

There we made some critical progress. As a condition for the rezoning, the Council claimed it secured a commitment from the Landmarks Preservation (LPC) to hear and vote upon the section of the proposed South Village Historic District north of Houston Street before the end of the year. This covers about 60% of the area we were fighting to protect – about a dozen blocks and 275 buildings which are gravely endangered.

However, there was no commitment to act on the area south of Houston Street, covering about 40% of the area and also gravely endangered. In addition, while the rezoning goes into effect in March, the landmarking will likely not be completed until December, leaving nine months for developers to move ahead with plans in this area. Additionally, the apparent commitment for the northern section to be “heard and voted upon” does not guarantee that the entire area will ultimately be landmarked; through the hearing process, the LPC often scales back the boundaries of historic districts.

While we made some important progress on the landmarking front, none was made at the City Council on the actual rezoning. GVSHP and many other community groups had called for the height and bulk limits for new development in Hudson Square to be significantly reduced from what was proposed. The rezoning allowed a Trump SoHo-sized development at one large site at the southern end of the district, while elsewhere allowed new development up to 290 ft. tall – taller than virtually any other building in Hudson Square, including all of the handsome large loft buildings which characterize the area. The Council made no changes to these limits and in fact, made it easier to build taller than originally proposed on some smaller streets.

The sustained activism of many in the community moved the needle significantly on this process, helping to secure landmarking commitments long resisted. However, the final deal failed to fully protect the entire South Village and did not improve the Hudson Square rezoning itself. The upshot? Activism does make a difference, but we still have a long way to go.

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