Inwood residents slam first affordable project proposed under de Blasio rezoning plan

Inwood residents are the latest group to pan Mayor Bill de Blasio’s neighborhood rezoning plan, rejecting the initiative’s first proposed project on the grounds it will “displace” current residents.

Washington Square Partners and Acadia Realty Trust are seeking a rezoning at 4650 Broadway to construct a 23-story, 335-unit mixed-use apartment building. Existing zoning allows the developer to build an 18-story building, which would be entirely market-rate, on the current site of a U-Haul rental space and two-story parking garage.

Paul Travis, a managing partner at Washington Square, said if the rezoning went through, the bigger, mixed-use building would include 335 rent-stabilized apartments and 159 parking spaces, DNAinfo reported. Of those apartments, 112 would be affordable for people making 80 percent of area median income of $62,150 per year, according to DNAinfo.

Retail and office space will be available on the development’s ground floor, although Travis did not say how much square footage it would hold.

Several residents and Community Board 12 members voted against the proposed rezoning. At the meeting, residents said the bigger building would “overpopulate” an already dense community and cause the displacement of families.

De Blasio’s affordable housing plan, which includes Mandatory Inclusionary Housing, is currently before the City Council for approval. Under MIH, developers seeking a rezoning must put aside 25 or 30 percent of a project for affordable housing.

Though de Blasio’s housing initiative has met resistance in all corners of the city, there are supporters.

The National Housing Conference, a nonprofit that supports affordable housing, recently released an op-ed that stated it is “critically important” that the City Council pass MIH. [DNAinfo] — Dusica Sue Malesevic