NYC-WTC_000230752

NYC 9/11 Public Portal Document

NEW York post, Monday’, October 29.2001 only small buildings are now allowed, or the Brooklyn and Queens waterfronts, which, are limited to manufacturing uses, , so that developers can build of­ fice and apartment towers there “as-of-right,” without the need to have every individual

\l 1, building go through the laby­ rinthine approval process. Even before the tragedy at the World Trade Center, mo­ mentum was growing to rezone the area west of Ninth Avenue, from 28th Street to 42nd Street. to permit the building of giant office towers. Today, this area — one of the few sections of Manhattan largely untouched by the nine­ ties boom — resembles the dis­

H trict around the World Trade Center before the towers were built in the 1960s: a mishmash of small businesses like auto­ repair shops, along with j ■ US o swathes of government-owned ■ land. The city estimates that the ' Far West Side could become a third great Manhattan business district, with more than 30 mil­ ■j lion square feet of new, modern

I office space. If it were rezoned, builders and their lenders would be free to figure out when the market was right to build, and what the market ’ I wants. ' QEYOND zoning intelligently, ' I K proper role for govern-

I City businesses need new construction to start now, but ground zero structure that allows private- won’t be cleaned up for at least a year. That means a crash building sector development to take program elsewhere in Manhattan. Brigitte Steizer place. On the far — West Side, government should extend the r by the Fisher Brothers plans for stance; the borough president No. 7 subway line down Eighth i the huge site of a former Con gets another month. Avenue to 34th Street and then Ed plant on the East River near If either disapproves, the west to Ninth or Tenth Ave- the United Nations — would whole project gets thrown into nue, and it should extend the I normally face two to four years Long Island Railroad there, too. the city council for more con­ ' of waiting and millions of dol­ beyond its current terminus at sideration and a vote. When lars in costs to go through the Penn Station. developers modify plans to Many of the necessary tracks city’s planning and land-use meet community, objection ~ process, to obtain permission and tunnels for this project al­ that a project is too big, say, or ready exist. This estimated to build the modern, economi­ isn’t what the neighborhood cally viable ' structures that S2 billion infrastructure invest­ needs — the whole land-use re­ ment would generate a. tremen­ view process goes back to dous increase in business activ­ Square One. ity (and tax revenues), and it It is a process that seems de­ would be a signal of confidence signed expressly to prevent in the city’s continued eco­ rather than to facilitate devel- nomic growth. opment-and it needs radical re­ As a precisely targeted part form. The city must sharply of its reconstruction aid pack­ curtail the period that any gov­ age to New York, sure to and local economies begin to Gotham’s rigid, antiquated zon­ ernment body can take to re- promote recovery, Washington recover, we must at once accel­ ing code discourages on many view a project and mandate should — in exchange for the erate the big projects through­ likely sites. that the entire process must city's rezoning the Far West out the city that are ready to IN this process, once the city’s last no longer than one year — Side — earmark federal mass­ start construction but are I Planning Commission gives at most — from start to finish. transportation money for this awaiting city approvals for the I its go-ahead after months of infrastructure project. Mean­ 7.5 million square feet of com­ waiting and study, myriad local pVEN more, important, the while, to facilitate development mercial space they will build. groups get to put in their two p city must immediately re- of the area right now, the city The dozen or so such proj- cents:' the local community L zone its large tracts of de­ should accompany its rezoning ects — such as the mixei:d-use board alone gets two months to velopable land, such as Man­ with greatly increased bus development that a group led review the project; for in­ hattan's Far West Side, where. service to the area. < inWMA

CITY_21MC100_011831914

NYC-WTC_000230753