City starts process to rezone the Bronx’s Jerome Avenue

After checking East New York off his list, Mayor Bill de Blasio now has his sights set on the southwest Bronx.

City Hall has taken the first step toward rezoning a 73-block swath along Jerome Avenue it says will pave the way for a total of 3,250 new apartments, 72,273 square feet of community facility space and 35,575 square feet of commercial space, according to New York YIMBY.

The Department of City Planning posted the first set of documents outlining the plan to rezone the area stretching from McClellan Street to the south in Highbridge to 184th Street in University Heights to the north.

The area is currently zoned commercial – allowing for retail, hotels, office and industrial space – and is predominantly characterized by the auto shops that line Jerome Avenue.

The rezoning, if approved, would fall under the city’s new Mandatory Inclusionary Housing policy, meaning any developer who builds residential there would have to rent at least a quarter of the apartments at below-market rates.

One point of contention could be the fact that the auto shops employ hundreds of workers, many of them recent immigrants who speak little English. The city estimates some 100 employees could be displaced through the rezoning, and plans to conduct another study analyzing the potential displacement at greater length.

City Planning has scheduled a public scoping meeting for Sept. 29. From there, the plan goes to community boards, the City Planning Commission and the borough president’s office before it heads to the City Council for final approval. [NY YIMBY] – Rich Bockmann