I. introduction
From BeyondVoting
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livable neighborhoods for a livable city:
New York City is gradually but perceptibly being reshaped, one neighborhood, sometimes even one block, at a time. New York City residents are joining forces with each other and like-minded organizations to find creative solutions to local problems. Nos Quedamos, a group in the South Bronx, for example, worked for many years and succeeded in altering an urban renewal plan to suit the existing neighborhood’s needs, and has now constructed nearly 700 residential units and 30,000 square feet of commercial space. The Organization of Waterfront Neighborhoods convinced the city of a better way to manage solid waste removal and to phase out inland, truck-based waste facilities. A community in Bushwick, Brooklyn, joined forces with the Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) and a local housing developer to plan collectively for a long-vacant brownfield site and use it to help achieve a community vision for housing, commerical and recreational development. The 170-unit residential complex is nearly completed.
Neighborhood residents are seizing opportunities and devising plans that reflect their vision. Many communities have done this—some through the officially-established process called 197-a planning; some outside of this process yet equally devoted to the concept of consensus-driven planning—resulting in a blueprint for the neighborhood created by the people who live and work there.
On paper, New York City government has what appears to be strong support for community-based planning. The city Charter’s original intent was to fold 197-a plans into the city’s planning and policy decisions. In practice, these plans often go through the public review process, are adopted by the City Planning Commission and the City Council, but ultimately have little impact on what actually gets developed in the neighborhood. Although the current administration 2 has demonstrated a commitment to public participation that far exceeds previous administrations; there is no official provision for funding the recommendations made in 197-a plans. Follow-up actions are rarely more than Department of City Planning rezoning actions. Despite the existence of adopted 197-a plans as well as other neighborhood-based plans, market forces continue to spur much of the city’s large-scale development. For example:
- In Red Hook, Brooklyn, a 346,000 square foot waterfront IKEA store and 1,400-space parking lot has been approved for a site explicitly designated in the community’s 197-a plan (approved in 1996) for maritime and industrial use. Three buildings are presently being demolished despite their eligibility for inclusion in the National Register of Historic Places and the opinion of the Landmarks Preservation Commission that retention of these buildings “was considered as a way of recalling the maritime and commercial history of the project site.”(3) With few of the plan’s objectives achieved, the community has been left with little alternative and voted in favor of this unplanned-for but job generating big box development. Graving Dock 2, an active maritime industrial use on the site (supporting 100 jobs), will be displaced, and there is no permanent provision for water transport.
Photos: Lisa Kersavage
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New York Harbor’s only dry dock capable of accepting large tall ships is located on a site recommended for industrial maritime use in the Red Hook 197a plan. A thriving ship repair outfit will be displaced by a parking lot for IKEA.
- In the low-rise, mixed-use waterfront neighborhoods of Greenpoint and Williamsburg in northern Brooklyn, the community board voted against the city’s proposed 180-block rezoning despite a nearly two-year-long effort by the Brooklyn Office of City Planning to shape the rezoning with the participation of the community. Ultimately, the community felt that the rezoning as proposed had fallen short of their vision, calling for 35-story apartment towers on the waterfront and virtually eliminating manufacturing areas in favor of residential development, while providing no guarantee for affordable housing.(4) While the Department of City Planning should be commended for working with the local community board, the process did not result in a rezoning that residents perceived as accurately reflecting their planning objectives or capable of revitalizing the area without significant displacement of residents and businesses.
- On Manhattan’s West Side, the community expressed in a consensus-driven plan (submitted to Community Board 4 in 2000) its opposition to a proposed stadium and support for much-needed affordable housing. The City Council has amended the plan to provide for 25 percent affordable housing, yet many of the community's important concerns remain unaddressed - including the stadium.
Rather than seeing community-based plans as building blocks in developing public policy and a comprehensive city plan, city agencies have sometimes regarded community planning and city policy as separate—even conflicting—interests. When even those communities that have created 197-a plans feel compelled to file lawsuits against unwanted development, or generally perceive the city as unresponsive to their involvement in land use decisions, it is an indication that the current 197-a process is neither efficient nor effective. Communities get frustrated. There are costly delays in development. Faith in government erodes. Recently, city agencies have become more receptive to the idea of partnering with communities. For example, the Department of City Planning was instrumental in assisting Manhattan Community Board 9’s 197-a plan that will soon be submitted to the city. Capitalizing on efforts such as these, the city has a unique opportunity to adopt a new approach to planning that recognizes and values the ideas and contributions of ALL communities and ALL New Yorkers.
[Map]
*As of February 2005.
Map produced by the Municipal Art Society Planning Center, 2005. Source: MAS Planning Center and New York Department of City Planning Bayside Throgs Neck Flushing NorthCorona Kew Gardens-Richmond HillCityIslandHolliswoodBelleroseKissenaParkJamaicaHillHuntsPointCollege PointForestHillsEast FlushingParkSlopeBedford-StuyvesantSouthGreenpoint-WilliamsburgHudson YardsRiverdaleEast HarlemDowntown BrooklynNorth RiverdaleFrederick Douglass Blvd.West ChelseaMorrisaniaVan CortlandtVillageDUMBOLadies' MileHunters Point(Expansion)Bridge PlazaPort MorrisHudson SquareWoodside-MaspethSherman CreekBronx Center/The Hub125th St. CorridorLower ManhattanWest Harlem/ManhattanvilleBayRidgeBrookvilleSpringfieldGardensBensonhurstJamaicaDepartment of City PlanningRezoning Areas*Community-Based Plans(Includes both 197-a and otherlocally initiated plans)
For details on these community plans, please see:"Planning for All New Yorkers, Briefing Book ofCommunity-Based Plans," The Municipal Art SocietyPlanning Center, 2004.
Community-Based Plan Locations & Department of City Planning Rezoning Areas∆
Section Notes:
(1)
(2)
(3) City Planning Commission Report C030414 ZSK September 8th 2004, Calendar No.29.
(4) The neighborhoods’ two adopted 197-a plans included recommendations to rezone their neighborhoods selectively and contextually to develop new affordable housing, encourage high-performing industry, and gain public access to the waterfront. The city adopted both plans in 2002.
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