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North Tribeca Rezoning Proposed
Since 2006, CB1’s Tribeca Committee has been negotiating with the city’s Department of City Planning to change the laws governing the size of new construction in North Tribeca, and the types of businesses that can open there. Both sides have drafted sets of new rules for the section of Tribeca between Canal and Beach Streets and are hoping to reach an agreement later this month, but key differences between the two proposals may stall progress. Under the current law, North Tribeca is zoned as a manufacturing district, though nearly all of its industrial businesses are gone, their buildings mostly converted to apartments. Most of those conversions, however, required special permits because they violate the district’s existing laws. “North Tribeca is not the manufacturing district that it’s currently zoned to be,” Grace Han, a planner with the Department of City Planning, said during a presentation to the committee last month. “It’s increasingly residential, so some of the goals of this rezoning are to reflect the changing language of the neighborhood.” In principle, CB1 and City Planning agree that the new zoning in North Tribeca should make it easier for developers to convert existing buildings, and impose strict height and size limits on new construction. Their biggest disagreement is over the sizes and types of businesses to be allowed in the district. The city wants to allow businesses on wide streets, such as Greenwich and Hudson, a maximum size of 20,000 square feet. Businesses on narrow streets, like Laight and Walker, could be as large as 10,000 square feet. The committee had asked the city to limit businesses to 10,000 square feet on wide streets and 2,500 square feet on narrow streets. The committee scratched more than 40 types of businesses, from dance clubs to dog kennels, from its list of allowable uses. CB 1 also wants to limit the number of banks, cell phone stores and variety stores in the district. As its model, the city used zoning passed in 1995 that changed Tribeca below and including North Moore Street from a manufacturing to a commercial zone. While those new laws banned most industrial uses, they loosened restrictions on retail and entertainment businesses. “The job of city planning is to preserve the character of our neighborhoods,” CB1 member Marc Ameruso said, “not to make developers richer.” CB1 also took exception to some of the restrictions the city wants to set for newly constructed buildings. Under the city’s proposal, North Tribeca would be divided into four sub-districts, each with its own limit on height and floor-area-ratio, which governs the total bulk of a building. (See map.) Of the four, the Holland Rotary Area is the largest, covering more than half the total district. The city has proposed an affordable housing incentive in that area, which would allow developers to increase the floor area ratio (FAR) of their building from 5.4 to 7.2—about a one-third increase in the bulk of the building. Hoping to limit larger buildings in North Tribeca, the committee had recommended a much smaller area for the incentive program. During their September meeting, some on the committee questioned whether City Planning took its recommendations seriously. “We will hear what [the committee] has to say and try to respond to it,” Han said. When the committee reconvenes this month, co-chairman Peter Braus said, it would have to choose its battles wisely. “We want a lot of stuff, and we’re not going to get it all, we know that,” he said.
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