Now is the Time to Get it Right!
All Out for March 10 Hearing on Downtown Redevelopment!
The New Rochelle City Council is currently reexamining and updating the Downtown Development Plan. On Tuesday, March 10 at 7:00pm, a hearing will be held on proposed amendments.
Among the changes, the City is proposing to add an additional 2,800 apartments to the Downtown Overlay Zone. (The Full Environmental Assessment Form detailing the proposed changes can be found here; a summary of the proposals can be found here.)
The proposed extension of DOZ 8 is shown in deep pink.
The plans do not address the need for truly affordable housing, creation of family supporting jobs, and green space. The City’s plan continues to fail to demand that developers meet the community benefit goals that received the most “likes”set out in the city’s 2015 online survey.
During the Council’s review of the proposed plans on February 10, Council Member David Peters spoke of growing concerns about the city’s redevelopment. “Developers cannot drive everything,” Peters said. “Everything cannot be what they would like to see happen. … There are things that we can do now that we’re not doing” to address the needs of the community.
Council Member David Peters addresses the Council on February 10.
This will be the last opportunity for the public to express their opinions and demand that this City Council move from merely suggesting that developers provide real community benefits to demanding that jobs and careers, truly affordable housing and much needed green space are codified in the overlay zones. Now is the time for residents to let their elected leaders know what needs to get done to bring equity to the city and to ensure every resident has the opportunity to enjoy the fruits of the redevelopment.
As our neighbors discovered at the most recent Planning Board meeting, public input on a project before the Planning Board has no meaningful impact under the overlay zoning structure once it is adopted by City Council.
Economic development downtown is being hobbled by insufficient parking. There’s not enough parking for new residents, many residents can’t afford the parking rates and are, therefore, clogging up the streets with parked cars, and people won’t drive downtown to spend money or just hang out because there’s not enough parking. Even when we are willing to pay, there’s no place to park. The surrounding neighborhoods also have insufficient parking. How can we talk about affordable housing in a car culture when there’s noplace to keep a car affordably? How can we talk about economic development in a car culture when people cannot park to spend money? Also, many people believe that a piece of being environmentally responsible drivers is using electric vehicles. There needs to be a requirement that new development have sufficient electrical capacity installed up front, not require retrofitting later.