Urbanities Volume 4 | No 2 - November 2014 - page 58

Urbanities, Vol. 4 · No 2 · November 2014
© 2014 Urbanities
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of brownstones along portions of 124th and 126th Streets (also comprised in the rezoning
area). The rezoning establishes a new contextual ‘Special District’ for 125th Street that will
affect 24 blocks between 124th and 126th Streets, from Broadway to Second Avenue,
crossing through West, Central and East Harlem. It allows for denser and taller buildings in
the area and introduces mixed-use developments in lots that were once zoned for commercial
activity, but also imposes height restrictions that were not mentioned in the existing zoning
regulations dating to 1961. To create new commercial space, much of which is unsuitable to
large-scale retail because of the street’s generally small lots, the rezoning increases the
allowable commercial and residential densities. In all, the plan allows for approximately
3,900 new apartments and over 600,000 square feet of new office and retail space
development that is expected to fill in the vacant lots and replace the one-story retail shops
that line 125th street. In an effort to create a pleasant pedestrian experience, the rezoning aims
to enhance ‘ground floor retail continuity’, and regulates uses located at the ground floor level
in all new developments with frontage on 125th Street. These have to be ‘active’ uses that
contribute to a vibrant pedestrian experience (retail, galleries, cafes, restaurants, movie
theatres). ‘Dead’ uses (including bank and hotel lobbies, offices and residential uses) are
prevented from fully occupying the ground floor of new developments along the strip; such
uses are allowed only on the upper floors and can have only limited space for lobbies on the
ground floor.
The plan also outlines a ‘special arts and entertainment district’ between Frederick
Douglas Boulevard (8th Avenue) and Malcolm X Boulevard (Lenox Avenue), the area where
major landmarks such as the Apollo and Victoria Theatres, the Blumstein Department Store
and the Hotel Theresa are located. Here, new developments with a floor area of 60,000 square
feet or more are required to dedicate five percent of their total floor area to arts- and
entertainment-related uses such as museums, performance venues and restaurants. The
proposal also includes regulations to enhance the streetscape by preventing shop owners from
coating their storefronts with roll-down metal grates, and by allowing theatres to build
distinctive marquee signs reminiscent of the old days of the Harlem Renaissance. An ‘arts
bonus’, usually in the form of additional floor area, is available to developers in exchange for
the provision of non-profit visual or performing arts spaces in their developments.
Criticism of the Plan
The 125th street rezoning plan has received vocal criticism from local residents, community
advocacy groups, tenant organizations and local urban planning think-tanks. According to the
DCP, the rezoning plan was the result of a substantial participatory process consisting of over
150 meetings held from 2003 to 2007 with ‘stakeholders, property owners, residents and
elected officials to discuss and refine the plan’ (DCP 2007b). According to some
commentators, however, the meetings repeatedly avoided to discuss topics that were crucial to
local residents — particularly their fears that new zoning actions could result in the
displacement of low-income households and small businesses, and their concerns that the
projected housing units would be unaffordable to Harlem residents (Feltz 2008). Although
criticism has targeted almost every aspect of the plan, most concerns have addressed the