SoHo, NoHo advocates fear development, sue
A group of SoHo and NoHo residents sued Mayor Adams and the city Thursday over the city’s plans to rezone their neighborhood, claiming that the changes paved the way for “large-scale demolition” in the historic district.
The rezoning, which was approved at the very end of former Mayor Bill de Blasio’s term last year, aims to bring more affordable housing to the historic artists’ enclave, but residents and other elected officials have pushed back on the plan, arguing it would fail to accomplish those goals and instead prove to be a windfall for deep-pocketed developers.
The lawsuit, filed by the Coalition for Fairness in SoHo and NoHo and several local residents in Manhattan Supreme Court, alleges that by enshrining new and strict compliance mandates on residents into law, the rezoning will cause “displacement.” As a result, artists will be hurt by eliminating artist-certification requirements going forward for new construction.
“It’s outrageous,” said the plaintiffs’ attorney Jack Lester. “It’s not just that they’ll have to move — they’re losing their life’s investment.”
Many artists whose units did not meet the previous zoning standards — a practice condoned under the prior zoning rules — will now have to get their apartments up to code, according to Lester, who added that the cost of doing so will be too much for thousands of them to afford.
Maria Feliciano, one of the plaintiffs Lester represents, said she would fall into that category. Getting her Broadway apartment up to code could take years and will likely cost her thousands of dollars.
“There’s an enormous risk that we would be displaced,” she noted.
That, she added, would mean her college-age daughter likely won’t be able to return to the home she grew up in once she graduates from school.
“This is a land grab,” Lester said. “The city is using affordable housing as a pretext.”
The rezoning will lead to more commercial and residential construction in an area known for its trendy shops, fashion and art, but which decades earlier represented a decaying warehouse district that had fallen out of use by the 1960s. At the time, artists began repurposing the warehouse spaces, including lofts, and eventually, the neighborhood gentrified, shifting from an area now associated more with commerce than art.
Last year, de Blasio suggested he aimed to address that — and the city’s need for affordable housing —through his plan, which covers 56 blocks and spans a 146-acre swath bound by Houston, Lafayette and Canal streets and 6th Avenue.
His administration defended it as a way to bring more affordable housing to the affluent area, but critics like Lester and those he represents view it as more of a sweetheart deal that will benefit titans of the real estate trade.
On Thursday, a spokesman for the city Law Department, Nick Paolucci, signaled that the Adams administration intends to back the plan as well.
“This rezoning will help ensure that all our neighborhoods are doing their part to solve our city’s housing crisis, particularly those that are centrally located and well resourced, and the administration has been proud to support it,” Paolucci said. “The rezoning underwent a thorough public review process, including a comprehensive environmental impact statement. We have successfully defended this rezoning before, and we aim to do so again.”