Friday, November 13, 2015

A call for zoning protections along the University Place/Broadway corridors


[EVG photo from July 2014]

Via the EVG inbox…

Tomorrow (11/14) at 12:30 pm, the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation (GVSHP), City Councilmember Rosie Mendez, State Senator Brad Hoylman, and local community leaders and affordable housing advocates will gather at the corner of 12th Street and University Place, across from Bowlmor Lanes, to call upon the Mayor and the city to finally move ahead with proposed zoning protections for this area prohibiting high-rise towers and encouraging the creation of affordable housing.

Demolition has just begun on Bowlmor Lanes, which is to be replaced with a 300 ft. tall luxury condo tower with no affordable housing. GVSHP has proposed a rezoning of the area which would limit the height of new construction and encourage developers to include affordable housing.

For almost a year GVSHP, local elected officials, and community leaders have tried to convince the Mayor and the city to move ahead with the plan. So far, they have refused.

See more information here and here (PDF).

Back in August, 6sqft got the first look at some preliminary renderings at the 23-floor building that will dwarf its neighbors between East 12th Street and East 13th Street…


[Click on image to go BIG]

Bowlmor Lanes closed in July 2014.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Building that houses Bowlmor Lanes will convert to condos, like everywhere else around here

76-year-old Bowlmor Lanes closes for good today

Bowlmor says goodbye

Bowlmor Lanes replacement: 23-floor residential building

Here's the Bowlmor Lanes-eating 23-story condo coming to University Place

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sorry this is off-topic, but Grieve do you know anything about this really vague story from Brooklyn Vegan concerning no more live music at the Elvis Guesthouse on Ave A? http://www.brooklynvegan.com/archives/2015/11/elvis_guesthous.html#more

EV Grieve said...

I heard this too... I guess a lot of neighbors were complaining about the noise... it was a great venue...

Anonymous said...

I wonder if the lack of comment suggests that readers of this blog don't care about this issue. I am in this neighborhood on a regular basis; I can't get excited about the issue because most of buildings along University Place from Waverly to 14th Street (I said most not all) are tall apartment buildings or former commercial buildings that have been remodeled. The same is true for the blocks between Broadway and University. Sometimes a new construction is neither good nor bad it just challenges us to accept change.