Community Fears City's Zoning Plan

By Barry Owens

Community Board 1 and local residents hope to block a developer’s initiative for high-rise rezoning of four blocks of riverfront property in north Tribeca. CB1 has argued that the city should require a lengthy environmental impact study (EIS) for the new zoning, which would allow buildings as tall as 160 feet on the blocks bordered by Watts, Hubert, West and Washington Streets. A developer, the Jack Parker Corp., initiated the proposal.

So opponents of the action were alarmed to learn last month that the City Planning Commission was about to set into motion, or “certify,” a land use review process for the rezoning without first conducting an environmental impact (EIS) study. The agency removed the proposal from its Jan. 20 agenda following calls from CB1 and elected officials. But the department said it would reschedule the certification for Feb. 6.

“They are required to do a full EIS,” said Carole De Saram, a veteran of other development fights in north Tribeca. “There is no way they can skirt that issue.”

De Saram stepped down as chairwoman of CB1’s Tribeca Committee late last month to avoid a conflict of interest, as her own group, the Tribeca Community Association, is circulating petitions to block the Jack

Parker development and is considering legal action. Board members Rick Landman and George Olsen now head the committee.

“What we have to do is to put up the red flag,” Landman said during an “emergency” meeting of the committee on Jan. 25.

Jack Parker is seeking a 7.5 FAR, with a building height limit of 160 feet. (FAR, or floor area ratio, refers to the bulk of a building. A building on a site with a 5 FAR limit, for example, can be five stories high if it covers the entire lot, but can be taller if it covers less of the lot or has setbacks.) That is bigger than is permitted in much of the rest of Tribeca, but smaller than the 210-foot limit that the developer had first sought.

  

 

 

 

 



 

Committee members, concerned that large new developments will block light, air and views, are troubled by the proposed size limits and prefer a more restrictive 5 FAR.

There is also concern about the zoning proposal’s 85-foot height limit for stepping back buildings facing Washington Street. Opponents say such a height would “wall in” the low-rise buildings of Tribeca’s historic district.

Certification does not mean approval, but it would put the Parker proposal into the city’s year-long review process. Just months ago the city and CB1’s Tribeca Committee were at the table together to discuss a proposed study of a comprehensive rezoning plan for the entire north Tribeca neighborhood. That plan calls for an FAR of 5 for all of north Tribeca.


Last month the Tribeca Committee approved a swiftly drawn resolution that called for City Planning not to consider the application ready for certification without the EIS. It also requested that the department return to the committee and work to develop a comprehensive plan for the entire area.

Rachaele Raynoff, a spokeswoman for City Planning, said late last month that the agency would conduct another internal environmental review of the application.

State law requires a full EIS when a project has the potential to affect traffic, light, air and other conditions in the area. Amanda Burden, chairwoman of the City Planning Commission, wrote in a letter last year to elected officials that the Parker application seemed to fit that description.

Raynoff said that the developer’s request has been scaled back since the letter was written and the height limits no longer meet the threshold to require an EIS.

“The application is technically complete,” she said. “The applicant is entitled to go through the process.”

She noted that the community board and other city agencies will have “ample time” to review, make recommendations on, or advise rejection of the plan.

Elsewhere in the neighborhood, the city is proposing a C6-2A zoning with a maximum building height of 120 feet and an FAR of 6. East of Sixth Avenue, the FAR would drop to 5.

The city has assured the community board that there would be an EIS attached to the full north Tribeca rezoning plan—a point not lost on the Tribeca Committee.

“To not require the Parker Group to do an EIS goes against City Planning’s own policy,” said board member Albert Capsouto. “It doesn’t make any sense.”