By: Hellen Zaboulani
Two community groups have sued the city, hoping to halt the rezoning efforts gaining speed in SoHo. As reported by Crain’s NY, the groups have gained confidence and learned moves from the Gowanus community, which recently fought to stop similar rezoning in their area. In fact, the SoHo community groups have enlisted the same lawyer, Jason Zakai, who fought the Gowanus rezoning which is still derailed.
On Friday, Zakai filed the lawsuit against the city in Manhattan state Supreme Court on behalf of the SoHo Alliance, and Broadway Residents Coalition. The lawsuit maintains that the city shouldn’t be permitted to continue with its rezoning effort before it holds in-person hearings, instead of virtual ones. The argument is quite similar to the one in the Gowanus lawsuit. The decision to stick with virtual hearings “is particularly illogical given that many of the restrictions on in-person public gatherings that had been imposed at the beginning of the pandemic have now been lifted” and that Mayor Bill de Blasio just announced on Thursday that New York would be ready for a full reopening by July 1, the suit says. Zakai did not immediately respond to a comment request.
The proposed SoHo/NoHo rezoning would add up to 3,200 new housing units to the neighborhood, including 800 affordable units, and would give cultural organizations and local businesses more flexibility, as per the de Blasio administration.
As per Crain’t NY, while many from the real estate industry support the rezoning, community groups are resisting it, citing gentrification. Village Preservation, a local neighborhood preservation group, recently put out a report saying the rezoning would make the area more expensive, whiter and richer. The lawsuit against the SoHo rezoning requests the court to mandate the city to comply with the city charter’s in-person hearing rules for the land use review process, and annul the executive order by Mayor de Blasio which suspended in-person hearing rules.
“We were never going to modernize 50-year-old zoning laws, or build affordable housing in one of the least affordable and least diverse neighborhoods in America, without a good hard fight,” said spokesman for City Hall and Mayor de Blasio, Mitch Schwartz. “So we’re not surprised. But we are prepared—and we’re confident that remote hearings are inclusive and fair, and we will deliver a rezoning plan that moves SoHo and NoHo forward.”