Inwood Rezoning Opponents Celebrate Win Over City

INWOOD, NY — Supporters of an Article 78 lawsuit challenging the city's controversial rezoning of Uptown's Inwood neighborhood braved the freezing cold Friday morning to celebrate a New York State judge's decision to annul the city plan, but warned that the fight to block the rezoning isn't over.

Activists from groups such as Inwood Legal Action and Northern Manhattan is Not 4 Sale denounced the de Balsio administration's top-down approach to the Inwood plan, saying that the city ignored real concerns about the displacement of people of color and working class residents of Inwood. Opponents of the plan described Justice Verna Saunders' ruling as "historic," arguing that it will set a precedent for future large-scale land use efforts in New York and force the city to include residents and consider their fears when planning future rezonings.

"You have shown in this community that you cannot hijack the work and the legacy of generations of people who have lived here," Comptroller Scott Stringer said Friday. "Not only did you make it clear that we are going to protect this community for future generations, you also put a marker down in city government."

Stringer, a Washington Heights native, said that when he was growing up in Upper Manhattan the area had little interest from real estate developers. The efforts of generations of Uptown residents, many immigrants and the descendants of immigrants, built the neighborhoods up, Stringer said.

Other elected officials such as Congressman Adriano Espaillat, State Senator Robert Jackson and State Assemblymember Carmen De La Rosa also spoke in favor of the lawsuit Friday, commending the efforts of community activists who led a years-long fight before, during and after the public review process on the city's rezoning proposal.

Many of those activists spoke during Friday's rally, reiterating their message that the city's rezoning plan was not designed to benefit Inwood's current residents.

"This rezoning was for people who come from outside with high incomes. It was not for people like us, working-class people who have defended this neighborhood for years and years. I hope to God that this decision stands because we will continue defending our community," Inwood resident Luisa Perez, a member of the Northern Manhattan is Not 4 Sale coalition, said Friday.

Advocates celebrated Friday but warned that the fight against the rezoning is not over. The city has shown its displeasure with Saunders' ruling and is currently planning an appeal.

"We strongly disagree with this ruling which we believe is legally incorrect and contrary to well-established precedent. We stand by the City's thorough environmental review and will challenge this decision so important projects, including the building of 1,600 new affordable homes in this community, can proceed," City Law Department Spokesman Nick Paolucci said in a statement.

Saunders' ruling sends the rezoning plan back to the city Economic Development Corporation and the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Housing and Economic Development, which will be required to study issues raised in Inwood Legal Action's Article 78 lawsuit. Inwood Legal Action's arguments contended that the city's environmental review process for the upzoning failed to analyze several effects of the plan on neighborhood residents.

Read more about the lawsuit's argument here.

Attorney Michael Sussman, who was retained by Inwood Legal Action, said that Saunders' ruling should stand up to a challenge.

"It was a good ruling. It was correct. A municipality can't adopt a public policy or resolution without the [State Environmental Quality Review Act] process being completed," Sussman said. "If you get nothing else from the ruling you get from the last paragraph in August the City Council acted and in October the environmental review was finished. It's a** backwards."

The City Council passed the Inwood rezoning plan in August 2018 after a lengthy planning and review process that went back as far as October 2015, when city officials first began introducing a plan to rezone the neighborhood at the community board level. The plan was supported by local City Councilmember Ydanis Rodriguez, who touted an investment package of $250 million in commitments from the city. Rodriguez and city officials argued that the rezoning — which would alter the industrial sections of Inwood east of 10th Avenue to allow for high-rise construction — was necessary to create affordable housing in a neighborhood that is losing rent-regulated units.