Last year, we oohed and ahhed as Community Board 3 stepped in to the East Village/Lower East overdevelopment argument and said, "Listen up, dingleberries. We're recommending some serious downsizing, so chill the eff out while we politic a little and figure out this mu'fuckah." Well, that's our loose translation of what happened, anyway. So now that city officials and CB3 have mulled it over, we've finally got some specific proposals. The Villager breaks it down:
The general plan is to create contextual zoning, under which new buildings will have to be built out to the street wall — no plazas will be allowed for new buildings — and maximum heights will be capped. No air rights will be allowed to be shifted from adjacent lots to add height to new projects, such as was done, for example, with The Hotel on Rivington, which was built to 16 stories by cobbling together air rights. Building heights would be capped, in general, at 80 feet — about eight stories tall — throughout the rezoning area. For those keeping track at home, this means your shirtless penthouse hot tub parties will now only be "elevated" instead of "stratospheric." Of course, the proposal does call for increased heights up to 120 feet for developers who commit 20% of the F.A.R. to affordable housing, so there might still be hope if you don't mind sharing a tub jet with a family of four making less than $56,000.
· Lower heights, low-cost units in E.V./L.E.S. rezoning plan [Villager]
· Alphaville in the Rezone: Downsize This! [Curbed]