Quantcast

The DNAinfo archives brought to you by WNYC.
Read the press release here.

Chinatown Groups Worry City Will Exert Too Much Power in Rezoning Push

At Wednesday's press conference, from left to right: Michael Lalan, of the National Mobilization Against Sweatshops; Josephine Lee, of the Chinese Staff and Workers’ Association; Jan Lee, of the Civic Center Residents Coalition; and Esther Wang, of the Chinatown Tenants Union.
At Wednesday's press conference, from left to right: Michael Lalan, of the National Mobilization Against Sweatshops; Josephine Lee, of the Chinese Staff and Workers’ Association; Jan Lee, of the Civic Center Residents Coalition; and Esther Wang, of the Chinatown Tenants Union.
View Full Caption
DNAinfo/Patrick Hedlund

By Patrick Hedlund

DNAinfo News Editor

CHINATOWN — A group of Chinatown advocates working on a neighborhood rezoning plan say the city is exerting undue influence over the effort.

The Chinatown Working Group — a 52-organization coalition — was awarded a $150,000 grant from the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation earlier this year to hire an outside planning consultant to help develop its rezoning plan. The city's Economic Development Corporation was designated the grant's fiscal conduit, insisting it have a majority vote in the final selection of the consultant, the Working Group said.

Members representing eight Working Group organizations met Wednesday to voice their concern over the city's growing involvement in the development of the plan.

The EDC “now wants to intercede in the process and take control,” said Josephine Lee, of the Chinese Staff and Workers’ Association. “We’re calling on the city to stop interfering in the community planning process.”

The EDC currently has four votes to the Working Group’s three in selecting the planning consultant, something advocates at Wednesday's press conference claimed could open the door to a rezoning plan influenced by developers.

“Community advocacy is being undermined in this way,” said Jan Lee, of the Civic Center Residents Coalition. “Time and again, our communities must advocate for themselves. We simply cannot and must not accept this system.”

The Working Group’s co-chairs responded in a statement Wednesday that they expect the EDC to act in “good faith,” noting that the services expected of the consultant and criteria used to evaluate potential consultants were devised by the Working Group, not the city.

“NYCEDC has repeatedly pledged to the CWG that it views its role as ‘facilitator’ in support of the CWG's process and goals,” read a statement by Working Group co-chairs Jim Solomon and Thomas Yu. “To date, nothing has suggested otherwise.”