Community-led Morningside Heights Planning Study makes progress toward rezoning after 60 years

Upper West Side NY

19 January, 2022

6:47 PM

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Columbia Daily Spectator BY AMINE BIT • JANUARY 19, 2022, 8:53 AM Morningside Heights faced unprecedented private development growth in 2016. This growth—and the subsequent increase in housing prices—made it increasingly difficult for families in Morningside Heights to make ends meet. It was out of this crisis that the Morningside Heights Community Coalition was founded. An outgrowth of the Morningside Heights Historic District Committee, MHCC was created with three primary goals: to promote affordable housing, limit out-of-scale development, and preserve the character and quality of life in Morningside Heights. In Spring 2021, the organization released the Morningside Heights Planning Study, the culmination of over five years of work. The path to the Study's release has not been simple.The Study took a halt when COVID-19 hit, because the funding that the MHCC had originally expected to be allocated toward consultants and other key resources were instead used for COVID-19 relief in Morningside Heights. But with new funding available and progress in the City Planning review of the plan, the MHCC's Morningside Heights Planning Study is coming closer to implementation. In New York City, rezoning applications are typically initiated by City agencies. What makes the MHCC different is its "bottom-up" execution, developed with the input and concerns of residents and the quality of life in the neighborhood in mind. The MHCC hopes that if the MHPS were to pass, its "community-led" approach would allow other communities to utilize its model to develop their own plans. Directed by the input of local residents, the MHPS utilizes several strategies to achieve the goals that the MHCC originally outlined, including imposing height caps to limit the construction of luxury towers, increasing community negotiation leverage, and creating a model for other communities to develop their own plans. Morningside Heights has not been rezoned for 60 years, lagging behind its neighbors — Manhattanville, West Harlem, and the Upper West Side — which have all had substantial rezoning.In 2016, Community Board 9 issued a resolution that reiterated the neighborhood's need for a zoning change. "Morningside Heights is a community that, like many, wants a seat at the table to plan its own future," the MHPS report says. "We hope this study can serve as an instrument to facilitate further input from community residents and provide an opportunity for all members of the Morningside community to participate in this process." The MHPS is currently being evaluated for an Environmental Assessment Statement, which analyzes any potential negative environmental impacts of proposed actions, determines the significance of such effects, and describes how to eliminate or mitigate those impacts. The EAS for the MHPS has not been completed yet, as the MHCC is still working to get consultants on board to produce a statement to send to City Planning. If approved, the MHPS will move on to the Uniform Land Use Review Process. Certain actions or developments reviewed by the City Planning Commission must undergo the ULURP. The procedure is invoked whenever a proposed development violates zoning regulations in the proposed area of construction. For the MHPS, these proposed changes to zoning regulations include the prioritization of 30 percent affordable housing units in new constructions, upzoning and downzoning certain parts of the neighborhoods, and zoning that would protect clusters of rent-stabilized units. With the passing of another election cycle, Manhattan borough president Mark Levine is expected to provide continued support for the plan as it moves forward in the review process. As the former City Council member for District 7 when the plan was originally drafted, Levine played an important role in the communication between MHCC and City Planning as the MHPS was developed. Additionally, the Municipal Art Society of New York, a key advocacy organization for urban planning issues, recently issued a statement on their website addressed to the New York City Council Land Use Division declaring its support for the MHPS. "MAS has long advocated for community-based planning," said Elizabeth Goldstein, president of MAS. "With a new mayoral administration and City Council arriving in 2022, we hope this proposal can chart a path for how future community-led rezonings are considered." For a proposal to successfully pass through the ULURP, it must undergo several review stages including a review by the community board, the borough president, and the NYC Planning commission review. The proposal must also receive a vote from the City Council. In the case of the MHPS, the plan needs approval from both Community Boards 9 and 7. The plan is expected to pass through the review of CB9 and Levine's office with ease, as they were both cosponsors of the plan. Gale Brewer and Shaun Abreu, both recently inaugurated City Council members, are also supporters of the plan, and their influence will likely give the MHPS critical leverage when it does eventually go up for a vote. However, the plan is expected to encounter some resistance, as some community members are concerned about its potential effects on their community. Some residents are particularly concerned about the proposed southern extension to 109th St, which is part of Community District 7. "This is especially unusual because when I was Chair of the Board from 2005 to 2007, CB7, together with a coalition of hundreds of area residents and local elected officials, successfully achieved the Upper West Side rezoning plan from W 97th St. to W 110th St.," said Sheldon Fine, president of the West Side Federation for Senior and Supportive Housing and former chair of Community Board 7. "The purpose of that was to maintain the contextual built scale of the neighborhood as well as the economic and ethnic diversity of our community." While the plan does not have the support of the entire community, numerous independent organizations are still coming forward to support the MHCC in their effort to implement the plan. People Against Landlord Abuse & Tenant Exploitation Harlem, for example, has been a supporter of the MHPS since its initial release in May 2021. Goddard-Riverside, a community center that serves more than 20,000 people a year on the Upper West Side and throughout New York City, has also endorsed the plan. With the implementation of the MHPS moving closer to reality, the organization's leaders hope that the MHPS can serve as a model for other communities to develop their own grassroots rezoning plans. "Morningside Heights became this oasis for overdevelopment by luxury developers," said Robert Stern, vice president of the Morningside Heights Community Coalition. "Hopefully, we're successful, and this will be a model for other communities … to develop their own plans." In the meantime, as the MHPS is reviewed, the MHCC is focused on furthering the goals of the MHPS as much as possible before the plan is passed by expanding outreach to potential community allies and improving access to elevators along the 1 train in Morningside Heights for seniors and people with disabilities. "We're excited to continue talking with interested stakeholders, giving presentations," said Andrew Lassiter, an urban planner for the City Council Land Use Division. "Whatever helps answer questions and get people excited about this proposal." Founded in 1877, the Columbia Daily Spectator is the independent undergraduate newspaper of Columbia University, serving thousands of readers in Morningside Heights, West Harlem, and beyond. Read more at columbiaspectator.com and donate here.