City Council Passes SoHo Rezoning Plan, Ending Years Long Process

SOHO, NY — The City Council approved the contentious SoHo rezoning plan on Wednesday.

The Council vote was seen as the last hurdle in which the plan to rezone the upscale Lower Manhattan neighborhood, along with a section of NoHo, could be nixed. All that is left is for Mayor Bill de Blasio to approve his own plan.

The vote was not particularly close, passing 43 to five. The five council members to vote against the SoHo rezoning were Inez Barron, Robert Holden, Ben Kallos, Carlos Menchaca, and Kalman Yeger.

The approval of the plan clears the way for more commercial and residential development, including hundreds of more affordable homes.

Specifically, de Blasio has said it would allow for as many as 3,200 new homes to be built in the historically business and arts-centric community, including around 800 affordable housing units.

"Today, New York City has taken a generational step toward building a recovery for all of us," de Blasio said in a news release after the approval vote. "This rezoning victory sends a powerful message that every community can and should join the fight to help solve our affordable housing crisis and make this city accessible for working families."

On the other side of the debate, a group of local residents and organizations strongly oppose the rezoning plan, stating that it would actually let more real estate developers into the neighborhood and decrease the availability of affordable units in SoHo.

“In spite of all the smoke and mirrors, let’s be clear: this plan is a giant giveaway to real estate interests, with the promise that a tiny percentage of that enormous gift will be returned to the public in the form of new affordable housing," Andrew Berman, the Executive Director of Village Preservation, said in a news release in response to the Council's approval vote on Wednesday.

The subject of how much housing will be allowed to be added in the final version of the rezoning project has become the topic's central question in recent weeks.

Lower Manhattan Assembly Member Deborah Glick took to Twitter on Tuesday to say that "adjustments to SoHo/NoHo rezoning don't include any guarantee of affordable units."

However, city officials working on the plan have pledged to add affordable housing, with certain addresses already picked out, including some just outside the 56-block rezoning area.

Affordable housing has been proposed to be constructed on the city-owned land at 388 Hudson Street and an NYPD parking lot at 324 Eat 5th Street.

The rezoning project is projected to cover an area bounded by Canal Street to the south, Houston Street and Astor Place to the north, Lafayette Street and the Bowery to the east, and Sixth Avenue and West Broadway to the west.

The SoHo rezoning approval is one of de Blasio's final and most memorable acts as mayor.