While the rezoning of neighborhoods like West Chelsea garnered plenty of attention, less analysis has been devoted to the impacts of zoning changes enacted by the Bloomberg Administration in places like Ozone Park.
Sarah Laskow starts her examination of the Bloomberg’s many downzoning efforts with the 530 blocks in Ozone Park, at the end of the A-train, which was the “second-largest rezoning in the entire twelve years of the Bloomberg administration.” The Ozone Park rezoning, according to Laskow, was “more about determining what won’t be built than what will.”
“One of the main goals of this change, common in Bloomberg-era rezonings, was to ‘reinforce neighborhood character.’ That sounds innocent enough, but it generally meant limiting new construction and codifying the status-quo of the neighborhood—giving the people who already lived there power to keep these places from changing.”
In fact, says Laskow, instead of providing a building envelope that will allow the city to grow into it, “The Bloomberg administration has left behind a building envelope that’s more like a corset, pulled tight to the city’s body, cinching around places that were already small and boosting its curves.”
And for all the attention devoted to new high rises allowed by rezoning in other parts of the city, “The Bloomberg administration’s 120 rezonings did as much to change the city’s shape in places where it limited growth as where it let developers build tall, and, as the city expands, those limits could become a problem.”
FULL STORY: The quiet, massive rezoning of New York

Planetizen Federal Action Tracker
A weekly monitor of how Trump’s orders and actions are impacting planners and planning in America.

Canada vs. Kamala: Whose Liberal Housing Platform Comes Out on Top?
As Canada votes for a new Prime Minister, what can America learn from the leading liberal candidate of its neighbor to the north?

The Five Most-Changed American Cities
A ranking of population change, home values, and jobs highlights the nation’s most dynamic and most stagnant regions.

San Diego Adopts First Mobility Master Plan
The plan provides a comprehensive framework for making San Diego’s transportation network more multimodal, accessible, and sustainable.

Housing, Supportive Service Providers Brace for Federal Cuts
Organizations that provide housing assistance are tightening their purse strings and making plans for maintaining operations if federal funding dries up.

Op-Ed: Why an Effective Passenger Rail Network Needs Government Involvement
An outdated rail network that privileges freight won’t be fixed by privatizing Amtrak.
Urban Design for Planners 1: Software Tools
This six-course series explores essential urban design concepts using open source software and equips planners with the tools they need to participate fully in the urban design process.
Planning for Universal Design
Learn the tools for implementing Universal Design in planning regulations.
New York City School Construction Authority
Village of Glen Ellyn
Central Transportation Planning Staff/Boston Region MPO
Institute for Housing and Urban Development Studies (IHS)
City of Grandview
Harvard GSD Executive Education
Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada
Toledo-Lucas County Plan Commissions