CHELSEA — The City Council voted to keep high-rises away from part of the High Line on Thursday.
The council expanded the Special West Chelsea District by one more block, according to City Councilman Corey Johnson, who advocated for the change. The district will now include the south side of West 15th Street between Ninth and Tenth Avenues, Johnson said. The new zoning change caps building heights there at 135 feet.
Johnson told DNAinfo that expanding the district would “help protect the low-rise character of the blocks south of Chelsea Market.”
"Before today, there were no height restrictions," he said of the West 15th Street block.
The Department of City Planning recommended the change after a 2013 study, saying on its website that “inclusion in the special district would establish height and street wall controls consistent with surrounding streets.”
The special district was created in 2005 to guide development around the High Line, according to an October letter from Manhattan’s Community Board 4.
The Council did not go so far as to include other blocks that the community board recommended be added to the district, such as Eleventh and Twelfth avenues between West 27th and West 30th Streets.
