Urbanities,
Vol. 4
·
No 2
·
November 2014
© 2014
Urbanities
59
approximately one-third of businesses in Harlem closed between July 2008 and June 2009.
This was not a merit of the national recession alone
.
As it will be demonstrated later in the
sub-section on
Commercial Gentrification
, dozens small businesses were directly evicted by
their landlords in order to take advantage of the higher building densities allowed under the
new zoning and to make room for more profitable developments (Irwin 2009).
Impact on Neighbourhood Character
The plan was presented by the press as one of the most meticulously crafted initiatives to
come out of the DCP under Chairwoman Amanda Burden. Burden herself argued in several
occasions that she had spent more time working on the 125
th
Street proposal than she had on
any other prior rezoning plan (Williams 2008b).
The plan promotes the development of ‘building forms that are compatible with
existing neighborhood character’ (DCP 2008b). Under the previous 1961 zoning, there were
no requirements for developments to respect the street line, allowing developments set back
from the street that interrupted the fluidity of the pedestrian experience. Under the new
zoning, bulk controls require all new development to provide street walls and setbacks for the
upper portion of the buildings to reduce their visual impact from the street level. As already
examined in the sub-section,
The 125
th
Street Rezoning Plan in Detail
, the plan incorporates
other tools specifically intended to promote a vibrant and aesthetically pleasing pedestrian
experience.
Despite these efforts, the community’s reaction has been suspicious, as the increased
allowable building densities (measured in FAR, or floor-to-area ratio, the maximum ratio of
permitted floor area based on the area of a zoning lot) encourage the demolition of low-scale
buildings in order to build taller ones. The modified plan set
of 190 feet, or
about 20 stories, on the north side of 125
th
Street and of 160 feet, or about 15 stories, on the
south side. City officials claimed this was necessary, as the old zoning regulations dating to
1961 did not incorporate any height limits. However, the old zoning contained implicit height
restrictions that kept too tall buildings from being built, as it incorporated narrower limits to
the allowable FAR. This is why most buildings along the corridor have remained
predominantly low-scale for decades. The new zoning instead encourages the demolition of
low-scale structures in order to build taller and more profitable ones
—
even with the new
height limit (Angotti 2009).
The rezoning has also missed opportunities to incorporate measures to preserve
buildings of historical significance in the area. Besides for two public libraries built in 1904
and 1914, no other historically significant buildings have been reviewed for landmark status
designation during the planning process. The FEIS admitted that the rezoning ‘could result in
significant adverse impacts due to potential demolition of four Register-eligible resources on
potential development sites, including: the former Harlem Savings Bank, the Marion
Building, the Bishop Building and the Amsterdam News Building’ (DCP 2008a: 3.23-2). The
list of buildings of historic significance located at 125
th
Street that are not protected by local
landmark laws however should also include the late Art Nouveau Blumstein’s Department
Store (completed in 1923), which was the site of Adam Clayton Powell’s legendary ‘Buy
