City launches community engagement campaign for '100% affordable housing' on 9th Precinct parking lot

EVG file photo

The New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) yesterday announced plans to redevelop the city-owned parking lot at 324 E. Fifth St. into "100% affordable housing" ... starting with a community engagement campaign for the proposed new project.

The 9th Precinct currently uses the 11,540-square-foot site between First Avenue and Second Avenue for parking and various towed vehicles. Affordable housing on this parking lot was one of the points of agreement from the City Council vote to approve the controversial SoHo/NoHo rezoning in December 2021.

Here are the next steps in what is likely a years-long process, per a city release on the project: 

The process of creating new affordable housing at 324 East 5th Street begins with a robust community engagement process culminating with the creation of a community visioning report summarizing the community's input. Together with local stakeholders, HPD will lead an in-person community workshop, local tabling events, meetings with the local community board and stakeholders, and other activities, all while collecting responses through a questionnaire (link), available online and in print at each event. Community members, local organizations and residents are invited to provide feedback and suggestions via the questionnaire. 

Following the community visioning report, HPD will release a request for proposals (RFP) where affordable housing development teams may submit their proposed plans for the site. Responses from developers must be responsive to the community priorities laid out in the community visioning report. Additional information, including updates on the process and upcoming public tabling events, is available on the HPD website (link). 

Said HPD Commissioner Adolfo Carrión Jr. in a statement: 

"The reuse of public land currently used for parking of city vehicles for affordable housing is exactly the right thing to do. We are excited to use this property owned by the taxpayers to confront our historic housing crisis in a creative and sustainable way. ... we will engage with the host community, which is the neighborhood of my early years, to ensure that what gets built at 324 E. Fifth St. addresses local needs and aspirations."

A group called 5th Street Park Coalition has advocated for a park in this space adjacent to P.S. 751. 

Previously on EV Grieve:

• Community groups advocating for low-income housing on these 2 East Village sites

Community groups advocating for low-income housing on these 2 East Village sites

Several community groups are hosting a public forum Thursday evening "to demand low-income housing" for the neighborhood. 

According to the meeting flyers, NYC owns "underutilized parking lots in our community, and we want to see affordable housing built on these sites."

The two examples cited are: 642-648 E. Sixth St. between Avenue B and Avenue C, which serves as NYCHA employee parking ... and 326-332 E. Fifth St. between First Avenue and Second Avenue, which the 9th Precinct uses. 

Both of these properties could yield low-incoming housing, per the organizers, the Cooper Square Committee, This Land Is Ours Community Land Trust and the Sixth Street Community Center.

The forum starts at 5:30 p.m. Thursday (Sept. 22) at La Plaza Cultural, the community garden on the SW corner of Avenue C and Ninth Street.

And as previously reported, a group called 5th Street Park Coalition wants a park for the space adjacent to P.S. 751 and currently used as a parking lot for the 9th Precinct on the block. 

Senior housing on this Fifth Street block is one of the points of agreement that came out of the City Council vote to approve the controversial SoHo/NoHo rezoning this past December.