Inwood Residents Rally For Expanded Contextual Rezoning Plan

INWOOD, NY — City officials and community board members met with Inwood residents Wednesday night to discuss the expansion of a controversial rezoning proposal to residential areas of the neighborhood west of Broadway and north of Dyckman Street.

Several activist groups, united under the Northern Manhattan Is Not For Sale coalition, showed up to the meeting in force to push for medium-density zoning for the area, which would set maximum building height limits but would not require developers to offer below-market housing options in accordance with the city's Mandatory Inclusionary Housing laws.

Activists argued that zoning levels such as R7A would preserve the neighborhood's existing affordable housing whereas higher-density zonings such as R7D and R8A — both floated during Wednesday night's meeting — would accelerate gentrification and displacement.

The more dense zoning options would allow developers to construct buildings larger than current zoning but would require a portion of the units to be offered at below-market rates under Mandatory Inclusionary Housing (MIH) laws. But many activists claimed that calling the units "affordable housing" is a misnomer.

Inwood resident Marshall Douglass, who is not in favor of the rezoning proposal, claimed that MIH would not benefit working class neighborhoods like Inwood due to the new.

'This is the opposite of what MIH was sold as," Douglass said Wednesday night. "It would bring an influx of wealthy people without any idea of the neighborhood."

Because the MIH calculates levels of affordability using a metric called Area Median Income — which includes incomes from wealthier parts of Manhattan as well as areas such as Westchester County — even apartments offered at values half of the AMI can be too expensive for many Inwood residents, many activists said Wednesday.

Community Board 12 organized the meting in an unconventional format, which at first seemed to irk some activists. Instead of having a normal land use committee meeting, the event was a "charette," CB 12's land use chair Wayne Benjamin explained. During the charette people would break out into smaller groups to discuss zoning issues with city employees and then share their ideas with the rest of the groups. Throughout the meeting Benjamin had to speak over and interrupt activists as groups shared their key takeaways from the breakout discussions.

The Community Board invited representatives from the city Economic Development Corporation to attend and help facilitate the charette.

"We welcome the opportunity to discuss this initiative, provide information and listen to the community's input. We look forward to continuing this conversation with Community Board 12, residents and stakeholders in order to inform a plan that will bring affordable housing, jobs, and waterfront access to Inwood residents, while preserving the neighborhood's distinct character," EDC Spokeswoman Stephanie Baez told Patch in a statement.

After presenting a much-criticized plan to rezone the areas of Inwood east of 10th Avenue to accommodate more residential buildings, the EDC expanded its plan to include a contextual rezoning West of 10th Avenue. Both neighborhood activists and local elected officials asked the EDC to include a contextual rezoning for areas west of 10th Avenue to protect the neighborhood's existing character and affordable housing stock.

The Community Board 12 land use committee will meet in July to discuss its conclusions from the charette and to comment on a recently-certified spot zoning application for a building on 112-114 Seaman Avenue.

Correction: This article incorrectly referred to R7A zoning as "low-density." According to the City Department of Planning all R7 level zoning is considered medium-density. Patch regrets this error.

Photo by Patch