Mayor de Blasio 'Disappointed' by Failed Sherman Plaza Rezoning Vote

INWOOD, NY — Mayor Bill de Blasio slammed the City Council for voting down a rezoning application earlier this week for the Sherman Plaza development in Inwood.

The mayor made his weekly appearance on the "Brian Lehrer Show" to discuss the failed Sherman Plaza vote among other topics. During the segment he expressed his disappointment with the City Council and specifically Councilman Ydanis Rodriguez, Inwood's representative on the council.

"This a very local situation, but I have to say I’m disappointed. I have great respect for Councilman Rodriguez — we work very closely together. But here’s the bottom line — now this community has lost the chance to have a building that would have been 50 percent affordable housing, which is an extraordinary win for the community," de Blasio said. "Because the City Council didn’t act on it — now you know what could happen? That same developer can turn around and just do luxury housing."

On Tuesday Councilman Rodriguez recommended the council to not support a spot rezoning application that would allow developers to build a 17-story building with more than 400 apartments on the corner of Sherman Avenue and Broadway. Rodriguez's colleagues in the council voted the application down unanimously in two different committees — the Zoning and Franchises Subcommittee and the Land Use Committee.

For months Rodriguez and the City Council negotiated with developer Acadia Sherman Ave LLC to work out a deal that would be mutually beneficial, but the two sides could not make a compromise, Rodriguez said Tuesday. The councilman had concerns about the levels of affordability for neighborhood residents and the fact that any deal struck between the city and developer could be jeopardized if the developed decided to flip the property.

If the spot rezoning was passed, the property would be under the jurisdiction of de Blasio's Mandatory Inclusionary Housing law, which would force the developer to offer a certain percent of the building's units at prices below the market rate. The MIH area would require the developer to offer 20 percent of the building's apartment units at a rate of 40 percent of the area median income or 30 percent of its units at a rate of 80 percent of the area median income ($62,150 per year for a family of three), which residents said was too much money.

The councilman's recommendation came after a months-long battle with a coalition of community organizations that opposed the project. Groups such as Uptown for Bernie, Inwood Preservation and the Metropolitan Council on Housing united to form Northern Manhattan is Not For Sale. The groups were worried that the Sherman Plaza development was a trojan horse for luxury housing and would accelerate gentrification in the neighborhood.

During the mayor's segment Thursday he seemed to imply that these groups mislead the people of Inwood.

"And I think, look, I think folks in the community – of course people are fearful of displacement; it’s very natural. But I don’t think they were well-informed by some of the loudest voices in the community. I think people were led down the wrong path," de Blasio said. "Because actually what could happen now is the worst of all worlds – just plain luxury housing, no affordable; instead of what would have been almost 70 affordable apartments that would have benefitted 70 families in the community. So this was a real lost opportunity."

[Photo: Kevin Case via Flickr/Creative Commons]