City Council Approves Inwood Rezoning

INWOOD, NY — The New York City Council voted Wednesday to pass a controversial plan to rezone a 59-block section of Inwood that many neighborhood activists fear may accelerate gentrification in the Northern Manhattan neighborhood.

The council voted overwhelmingly to pass the plan — 43 in favor, one against and one abstaining — despite disruptions in the council chambers by opponents of the plan. Protesters shouted "liar," "stop rezoning and displacement" and threw fake dollar bills during and after local representative Ydanis Rodriguez praised the plan before the vote.

Dozens of protesters were escorted out of the council chambers by police while chanting "vote no." As protests continued outside the chambers, protesters were eventually kicked out of City Hall into the blistering heat, according to reporters on the scene.

The plan will rezone 59 blocks north of Dyckman Street to increase density and allow for greater residential and commercial development along 10th Avenue and in the largely industrial areas east of 10th Avenue. The blocks west of 10th Avenue are being rezoned in an effort to preserve the neighborhood's current residential character by implementing R7A zoning — a mid-density rezoning that caps building heights.

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Both Johnson and Rodriguez touted the rezoning plan as a win for Inwood. The plan will create and preserve more than 5,000 apartments offered at below-market rates in a neighborhood that has gained less than 1,000 affordable apartment in the past 30 years and that is hemorrhaging rent-stabilized apartments, the council members said.

"I believe this rezoning is necessary to preserve our community as a working class community," Rodriguez said Wednesday before voting in favor of the plan.

The de Blasio administration has also pledged to invest more than $250 million in the neighborhood to benefit schools, parks, infrastructure and more as part of the rezoning package, officials said. These investments include fixes to neighborhood waterfront spaces, a $50 million investment in the George Washington High School complex and the creation of 100 percent below-market rate buildings on city-owned land such as the Department Of Transportation site on West 205th street.

The plan was recently modified to remove planned zoning changes along Inwood's commercial stretches on Dyckman Street, Broadway and West 207th Street — an area the city labeled the "Commercial U." Rodriguez said the rezoning changes were removed due to community concerns.

"I heard loud and clear that the rezoning was too broad and could threaten character of neighborhood. For that reason we took the U out of the rezoning," Rodriguez said Wednesday.

But many rezoning opponents paint the plan in a different light. A coalition of community activist and advocacy groups called Northern Manhattan is Not For Sale has labeled the rezoning a gentrification and displacement plan since it was first introduced in 2015. The groups claim that high-density rezoning of areas east of 10th Avenue will spur the creation of mostly market-rate housing, which will accelerate gentrification and the displacement of low-income residents and "mom and pop" businesses. Opponents also argue that the units created by the implementation of Mandatory Inclusionary Housing will not be affordable for many of Inwood's current residents, who earn less than the city-wide median income.

Members of the coalition occupied Rodriguez' district office following last week's committee votes on the rezoning plan. During the occupation they called on the city to issue a moratorium on all full-neighborhood rezonings until the Mandatory Inclusionary Housing law is modified to mandate new developments set aside 50 percent of units at deeply-affordable levels and to use neighborhood-specific incomes to determine affordable. The law currently uses a metric called Area Median Income, which pulls data from all over the city and some suburban counties.

Rezoning opponents have said that the concessions won by Rodriguez in the modified version of the rezoning plan — which include the removal of a proposal to dramatically upzone the neighborhood's main commercial streets and about $500 million in various neighborhood investments — do not reflect the demands residents have been advocating for years. Nine people were arrested Monday night during a protest of the rezoning.

Congressman Adriano Espaillat — who represents part of Harlem, Northern Manhattan and the South Bronx — has also criticized the rezoning plan. The congressman urged the City Council to vote down the rezoning plan due to its "harsh and negative impact on Inwood residents."

“Despite the City’s recent edits to their proposal, I remain concerned that the rezoning plan will hurt Inwood and lead to widespread displacement of the community’s current residents,”

The rezoning package also includes a controversial plan to redevelop the beloved Inwood branch of the New York Public Library on Broadway. Rezoning opponents said the redevelopment should require a separate public review process.

Following Wednesday's council vote the rezoning will need to be signed into law by Mayor Bill de Blasio, who supports the plan. The Inwood rezoning is the latest in a number of de Blasio administration rezoning initiatives. Rezonings were previously passed for East Harlem, East New York, Downtown Far Rockaway, East Midtown and the Jerome Avenue section of the Bronx.

Photo by NYC Economic Development Corportation