City Planning kickstarts East Harlem rezoning review process

Plan targets a 96-block area

Marisa Lago and East Harlem
Marisa Lago and East Harlem

The city took the first major step Monday to rezone a large swath of East Harlem in what would be the second neighborhood rezoned under the mayor’s Mandatory Inclusionary Housing program.

The City Planning Commission certified a proposal to rezone a 96-block area of the neighborhood bounded by East 132nd Street to the north, East 104th Street to the south, Park Second Avenue to the east and Park Avenue to the west. Officials estimate that the rezoning could create as many as 3,500 units of new housing, some of which will be permanently affordable.

“It represents one more link in a chain of community engagement and activism in East Harlem, aimed at ensuring that a much-beloved neighborhood remains affordable, vibrant and livable, and provides economic opportunity to its residents,” City Planning Commission Chair Marisa Lago said in a statement.

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Monday’s certification is the start of the Uniform Land Use Review Procedure (ULURP), a seven-month process during which the proposal will be reviewed by Community Board 11, the borough president, City Planning and the City Council. The land use review process will also begin for a massive mixed-use project on a city-owned Site On East 111th Street. In February, the city selected Jonathan Rose Companies [TRDataCustom] to develop the 751,000-square-foot project, dubbed Sendero Verde. All of the project’s 655 units will be affordable, with nearly 60 percent set aside for families of three earning less than $49,000 a year.

Though the certification moves the rezoning along, the city has slowed its pursuit of other rezonings. Politico reported Monday that community and political backlash were to blame for the change in pace. Two years ago, Mayor Bill de Blasio’s set out to rezone 15 neighborhoods. So far, only East New York has been rezoned under MIH.

(To see more properties owned by Jonathan Rose Companies, click here)