By Julie Shapiro
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
TRIBECA — The city’s rezoning of North TriBeCa won final approval last week, opening the door to more residential development in a district once home to factories and wholesale suppliers.
The 25-block rezoning removes an outdated manufacturing designation and encourages residential construction, while at the same time placing height and bulk limits on new buildings, as the community requested.
The City Council passed the rezoning on Oct. 13, and it immediately went into effect, the Department of City Planning said. City Planning and Community Board 1 had already voiced support for the plan earlier this year.
"The excitement when it finally passed was great," said City Councilwoman Margaret Chin, who represents lower Manhattan. "It’s good to try to preserve the character of northwestern TriBeCa."
To prevent chain stores and clubs from overwhelming the small-scale neighborhood, the city limited ground-floor retail spaces to 10,000 square feet on wide streets and 5,000 square feet on narrow streets.
The rezoning also caps new hotels at 100 rooms or fewer, though developers can apply for an exception.
To encourage more affordable housing in northern TriBeCa, the rezoning allows residential developers to build bulkier structures if they include 20 percent affordable housing units on site or nearby. This incentive applies only to the area near the Holland Tunnel entrance, not to the more historic parts of the neighborhood.
While the rezoning outlaws the heavy-duty manufacturing that once defined TriBeCa, several lighter industrial uses, like furniture making, are still allowed.
The changes "will help complete the transformation of northern TriBeCa," City Planning Commissioner Amanda Burden said at meeting earlier this year. "Northern TriBeCa is taking its place among Lower Manhattan’s most vibrant and livable historic neighborhoods."
The rezoning affects the blocks bounded by West Street to the west, Canal Street to the north, Broadway to the east and Hubert, Beach, North Moore and Walker streets to the south.
