Conceding Density, SoHo/NoHo Rezoning Plan Clears Final Hurdles

Kathryn Brenzel reports for TheRealDeal that the New York City Council has reached a compromise to get Envision SoHo/NoHo one critical step closer to full approval, dialing back some of the density in the vision for this relatively wealthy corner of Manhattan.

The version of the plan approved by the City Council's Committee on Land Use last week "reduces the commercial floor-area ratio in most of the rezoning area to 5 from the original proposal, in which FAR was 10 in three areas," reports Brenzel. "In the Bowery corridor in Noho, the commercial FAR is 7 and the residential FAR is 12, as recommended by City Planning."

"Despite the last-minute changes, the plan as a whole will dramatically increase the amount of development allowed in the high-income, relatively low-scale neighborhoods. It is a victory for the administration and advocates for affordable housing, not to mention the real estate industry," writes Brenzel.

Planners in New York City began working on the controversial rezoning plan in 2018, and the narrative about the rezoning process quickly turned to relative wealth of the neighborhoods included in the plan compared to other parts of the city rezoned during the de Blasio administration (advocates are pushing the city to for rezone for more residential density in other affluent parts of the city in the wake of Envision SoHo/NoHo).

More details on the final plan are available in the source article linked below. An earlier article by Brenzel, published two days earlier, detailed the political maneuvers that preceded to the compromise.