NEW YORK CITY-Responding to concerns raised over the Midtown East rezoning proposal during the public review process, the city announced it has made modifications to its initial plan. The revised proposal from the Department of City Planning allows new office developments to include residential space, a mixed-use approach that has been a goal of community leaders. In addition, in response to concerns expressed by landmarked religious institutions, DCP proposed giving all landmarks located in the northern section of the zoning area increased flexibility to transfer their unused air rights.

The modifications also address concerns about hotels by reducing the amount of hotel use permitted on individual sites to 20% and by allowing sites currently occupied by large hotels to rebuild in the new development. Other portions of the initial plan also were tweaked.

Under the existing proposal, only fully commercial buildings qualify for zoning incentives. The Department received recommendations that new developments should allow for a mix of residential and commercial uses. In order to provide for this mix of uses without undermining the proposal's chief goal of incentivizing modern office development, city planning proposed allowing up to 20% of a building's floor area as residential use as-of-right, according to the new plan's announcement. That percentage of residential use could be increased up to 40% through a special permit process.