SoHo Community Board Readies For Its Recommendation On Rezoning

SOHO, NY — On May 17, the de Blasio administration began its official Land Use Review Procedure (ULURP) for the SoHo rezoning plan, a near seven-month public process in which the local community board, borough president, the Department of City Planning, the City Council, and mayor will review and vote on the controversial proposal.

The first step in that process is with the community board, in this case, Community Board 2, representing SoHo along with Greenwich Village and the West Village, which has 60 days from May 17 to hold a public hearing on the matter and make a recommendation.

The Lower Manhattan community board has gotten to work, recently creating a SoHo/NoHo Working Group that will hold several meetings in June to work on the community's response to the city's plan.

The first of those meetings is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Wednesday. It will cover the "very real threat of displacement of existing rent-regulated units in SoHo, Noho, and Chinatown," according to the SoHo Alliance, which is a volunteer community organization.

Here's the full agenda for Wednesday's meeting:

• Village Preservation: Discussion of Why the City’s Rezoning Plan Will Reduce Net Affordable Housing (pp. 16-22) and Impact on 635 Rent Regulated Units in 105 Buildings in Rezoning Area
• Impact on Chinatown: Zishun Ning with the Chinatown Working Group
• Impact on JLWQA Tenants: Charlie Anderson with Assemblymember Deborah Glick; Sean Sweeney, SoHo Alliance; Robert Seidman, JLWQA Tenant.

Here is the schedule for Community Board 2's SoHo/NoHo Working Group June meetings:

• Tuesday, June 15th: Impact on Historic Districts: presentation by the Municipal Arts Society
• Wednesday, June 23rd: Public Hearing with Presentation from the Department of City Planning
• Thursday, June 24th: Second Public Hearing

You can register for the meetings by clicking on the hyperlinks above. All of the meetings start at 6:30 p.m.