NEW YORK CITY—A little over a month after Mayor Bill de Blasio unveiled his version of the Midtown East rezoning effort, a steering committee that will oversee the complex process has been announced, reports Crain's New York Business.
The group of community stakeholders—which will be chaired by Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer and midtown Councilman Daniel Garodnick—will spearhead the second phase of the rezoning, with the first phase focused on the Vanderbilt Avenue corridor adjacent to Grand Central Terminal. It will review a range of topics, including the need for updated commercial building stock in east midtown, the appropriate density for the area, historic preservation, transit and other infrastructure priorities, and environmental concerns.
It also will meet with others who will be affected by the rezoning, including religious institutions and individual property owners. "The steering committee's community-based planning process will be thorough and involve all stakeholders in as open and transparent a process as possible," Brewer says
Garodnick, considered the leader of an effort made last year to derail a rezoning effort that was attempted by Mayor Michael Bloomberg, says that community members, himself included, "now have a chance to do it right."
The committee will conduct a "ground-up" study of the proposed rezoning. The panel will include one representative from each of the following groups: Community Board 5; Community Board 6; the East Midtown Multi-Board Task Force; the Municipal Art Society; the Landmarks Conservancy and Historic District Council; the Regional Plan Association; REBNY; the Grand Central Partnership and the East Midtown Partnership.
The group will meet twice a month, with the first meeting scheduled for September. Its goal will be to deliver a final set of recommendations to the Department of City Planning by next spring.
Meanwhile, the first phase of the rezoning has already began. Last month, the city announced SL Green would seek a special permit to build a 1.6 million-square-foot office building adjacent to Grand Central Terminal on Vanderbilt Avenue between East 42nd and East 43rd streets. The 65-story tower will be 150 feet taller than the Chrysler Building on the other side of the train station.
The project, called 1 Vanderbilt, will include indoor and outdoor public space, as well as underground connections to the subway to help relieve above-ground congestion. The public review process for rezoning five more blocks along Vanderbilt Avenue will begin this fall.
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Rayna Katz
Rayna Katz is a seasoned business journalist whose extensive experience includes coverage of the lodging sector, travel and the culinary space. She was most recently content director for a business-to-business publisher, overseeing four publications. While at Meeting News, a travel trade publication, she received a Best Reporting award for a story on meeting cancellations in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina.
