Community Board To Discuss Updated Inwood Rezoning Plan

INWOOD, NY — Rezoning in Inwood is back, and bigger than ever. The stakeholders for a plan to rezone large swaths of Inwood will meet with Community Board 12's Land Use committee Wednesday night to discuss updates made to the plan since it was protested out of the Community Board almost one year ago.

Last year, a coalition of community organizations formed under the banner "Northern Manhattan is Not For Sale" to oppose the project. The city's rezoning plan — designed and promoted by the city Economic Development Corporation — would accelerate hyper-gentrification and displacement in Inwood, the plan's opponents argued.

City representatives argued that the plan would actually be taking proactive measures to prevent over-development in residential areas of Inwood by rezoning industrial areas for redevelopment.

People weren't buying it. The fear, essentially, was that Inwood would become the new Williamsburg.

The city went back to the drawing board, and at the behest of local elected officials, expanded upon the rezoning plan presented last year.

"We therefore request that the Administration expand the rezoning area to include a contextual rezoning framework in Inwood west of 10th Avenue, where appropriate, to ensure that development balances the goals of creating new affordable housing with preserving the neighborhood context and jobs," City Councilman Ydanis Rodriguez and Borough President Gale Brewer wrote in a letter to Mayor Bill de Blasio.

The updated plan now includes rezoning of land west of Tenth Avenue, designed to protect those residential areas from out-of-scale spot developments, according to an EDC presentation from May.

Here's a look at the expanded rezoning area:

Correction: The Community Board 12 land use committee will meet Wednesday night at The Allen Hospital, located on 5141 Broadway near West 220th Street and Ninth Avenue. Committee meetings generally begin at 7 p.m.

Photo by Patch