Mayor Bill de Blasio’s Inwood rezoning has passed.
The City Council on Wednesday voted through the controversial plan that would allow more development and increase housing in the upper Manhattan neighborhood, Curbed reported.
The council’s subcommittee on zoning and franchises last week approved a modified version of the plan, which excluded the “commercial U” of Broadway, 207th Street and Dyckman Street. It aims to bring 5,000 units of housing to the neighborhood.
Parts of the community have decried the plan, fearing it would cause home values and rents to soar. But local Councilman Ydanis Rodriguez and the administration have argued that the current housing supply faces too much market pressure, which causes the displacement that opponents want to stop. Rodriguez was targeted by marches and a sit-in.
The councilman has said that $500 million would be invested in Inwood, though not all of it would come from projects related to the rezoning, Crain’s reported. The city agreed to invest $200 million in establishing and expanding youth and adult educational facilities, create an immigration-related performance art center and convert two publicly owned properties to affordable housing, the publication reported.
The City Council has also passed rezonings in East Harlem in Manhattan, Far Rockaway in Queens and East New York in Brooklyn. [Curbed] — Meenal Vamburkar