{"id":305,"date":"2018-06-06T02:51:46","date_gmt":"2018-06-06T06:51:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/richardsonconsultants.com\/3400wayneavenue\/?p=305"},"modified":"2018-06-06T02:52:12","modified_gmt":"2018-06-06T06:52:12","slug":"305-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/richardsonconsultants.com\/3400wayneavenue\/305-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Jerome Avenue Approved for Massive Rezoning"},"content":{"rendered":"

After three years of back and forth talks, the\u00a0Jerome Avenue Rezoning Plan was approved<\/strong><\/a>, opening the door for the rezoning of 92 blocks of Jerome Avenue, ushering in 4600 units of affordable housing, of which 1500 will be permanently affordable. The rezoning plan is the largest since the 1970s, and can jeopardize the neighborhood\u2019s existing automotive sector.<\/p>\n

The plan represents a major win for City Council members Vanessa Gibson and Fernando Cabrera, whose districts cover the area to be rezoned. They believe rezoning will allow current residents to remain in place while adding to the stock of affordable housing.<\/p>\n

The Jerome Avenue district will extend from McClellan to 184th streets, impacting the neighborhoods of Highbridge, Concourse, Mount Hope, University Heights and Morris Heights.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is an opportunity for the Bronx to get what it has rightfully deserved for decades and decades when no one gave a second glance to the Bronx,\u201d Gibson said minutes ahead of the March 22 vote. \u201cWe have not had a major investment like this.\u201d<\/p>\n

The city will build two new elementary schools within those communities which are part of school districts 9 and 10. They will create a Southwest Bronx Housing Task Force that will preserve 2500 affordable units in the neighborhood over the next two years, and a preservation program to protect tenants from displacement, sustained by $200,000 for tenant organizing. Because of the city\u2019s Mandatory Inclusionary Housing program, developers who build along the Jerome Avenue corridor will also be required to set aside at least 25 percent of their new units for affordable housing. Ten percent of the developer\u2019s units will go to families earning 40 percent of the area median income, or $34,360 for a family of three.<\/p>\n

Talk of Jerome Avenue\u2019s rezoning began in 2015, a year after Mayor Bill de Blasio announced his Housing New York Plan, which sought to build or preserve 200,000 units of affordable housing. The city organized a number of visioning sessions, prompting Cabrera to call the process a \u201cprototype for all future rezoning projects setting high standards for collaboration and community input\u201d in prepared remarks ahead of the vote.<\/p>\n

Those opposed to the plan have long said that the new affordable housing will not be as affordable to the existing population and that rezoning will spark gentrification. Community advocates worry that low-income tenants and the numerous immigrant-owned auto shops along Jerome Avenue will be displaced.\u00a0The Bronx Coalition for a Community Vision,<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0an activist group in favor of low-income housing requirements, attended the council vote. During the proceedings they erupted with chants of \u201cThe people, united, will never be defeated!\u201d Video footage of the event reveals impassive faces from council members and even laughter as protesters were cleared from the room.<\/p>\n

The city has made some concessions to address the opposition\u2019s concerns. The city\u2019s Department of Housing Preservation and Development is constructing a certificate of no-harassment program, which will require landlords to prove that they have not harassed current or former tenants into moving out of their apartments in the last five years in exchange for a green card. The city Department of Small Business Services will start a training program for auto workers, hire a workforce development coordinator to assist auto-related businesses, and implement $1.5 million in grant money to help businesses that are displaced with relocation costs.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe plan marks another milestone in the important progress we are making to build a fairer and more affordable New York City,\u201d said Mayor Bill de Blasio.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After three years of back and forth talks, the\u00a0Jerome Avenue Rezoning Plan was approved, opening the door for the rezoning of 92 blocks of Jerome Avenue, ushering in 4600 units of affordable housing, of which 1500 will be permanently affordable. The rezoning plan is the largest since the 1970s, and can jeopardize the neighborhood\u2019s existing automotive sector. The plan represents a major win for City Council members Vanessa Gibson and Fernando Cabrera, whose districts cover the area to be rezoned. They believe rezoning will allow current residents to remain in place while adding to the stock of affordable housing. The Jerome Avenue district will extend from McClellan to 184th streets, impacting the neighborhoods of Highbridge, Concourse, Mount Hope, University Heights and Morris Heights. \u201cThis is an opportunity for the Bronx to get what it has rightfully deserved for decades and decades when no one gave a second glance to the Bronx,\u201d Gibson said minutes ahead of the March 22 vote. \u201cWe have not had a major investment like this.\u201d The city will build two new elementary schools within those communities which are part of school districts 9 and 10. They will create a Southwest Bronx Housing Task Force that will preserve 2500 affordable units in the neighborhood over the next two years, and a preservation program to protect tenants from displacement, sustained by $200,000 for tenant organizing. Because of the city\u2019s Mandatory Inclusionary Housing program, developers who build along the Jerome Avenue corridor will also be required to set aside at least 25 percent of their new units for affordable housing. Ten percent of the developer\u2019s units will go to families earning 40 percent of the area median income, or $34,360 for a family of three. Talk of Jerome Avenue\u2019s rezoning began in 2015, a year after Mayor Bill de Blasio announced his Housing New York Plan, which sought to build or preserve 200,000 units of affordable housing. The city organized a number of visioning sessions, prompting Cabrera to call the process a \u201cprototype for all future rezoning projects setting high standards for collaboration and community input\u201d in prepared remarks ahead of the vote. Those opposed to the plan have long said that the new affordable housing will not be as affordable to the existing population and that rezoning will spark gentrification. Community advocates worry that low-income tenants and the numerous immigrant-owned auto shops along Jerome Avenue will be displaced.\u00a0The Bronx Coalition for a Community Vision,\u00a0an activist group in favor of low-income housing requirements, attended the council vote. During the proceedings they erupted with chants of \u201cThe people, united, will never be defeated!\u201d Video footage of the event reveals impassive faces from council members and even laughter as protesters were cleared from the room. The city has made some concessions to address the opposition\u2019s concerns. The city\u2019s Department of Housing Preservation and Development is constructing a certificate of no-harassment program, which will require landlords to prove that they have not harassed current or former tenants into moving out of their apartments in the last five years in exchange for a green card. The city Department of Small Business Services will start a training program for auto workers, hire a workforce development coordinator to assist auto-related businesses, and implement $1.5 million in grant money to help businesses that are displaced with relocation costs. \u201cThe plan marks another milestone in the important progress we are making to build a fairer and more affordable New York City,\u201d said Mayor Bill de Blasio.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":306,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-305","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-neighborhood-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/richardsonconsultants.com\/3400wayneavenue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/richardsonconsultants.com\/3400wayneavenue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/richardsonconsultants.com\/3400wayneavenue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/richardsonconsultants.com\/3400wayneavenue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/richardsonconsultants.com\/3400wayneavenue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=305"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/richardsonconsultants.com\/3400wayneavenue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":308,"href":"http:\/\/richardsonconsultants.com\/3400wayneavenue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305\/revisions\/308"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/richardsonconsultants.com\/3400wayneavenue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/306"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/richardsonconsultants.com\/3400wayneavenue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=305"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/richardsonconsultants.com\/3400wayneavenue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=305"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/richardsonconsultants.com\/3400wayneavenue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=305"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}