This Day in Preservation History- October 11, 2005: City Approves Far West Village Rezoning
In the ten years leading up to 2004, the Far West Village along West Street experienced huge changes. Large, out-of-scale luxury developments were built where only low-rise buildings had been found for generations along the waterfront. In response, GVSHP and other local community groups banded together to push for landmark protections and downzoning of the neighborhood from Gansevoort Street to Barrow Street, between West Street and Greenwich Street. Throughout 2004 and 2005, GVSHP relentlessly pursued protections for the area. We held rallies, press conferences, and letter writing campaigns to bring attention to this threatened historic area that was under drastic threat from development.
On this day in 2005, a big piece of that effort finally came to fruition.
In May, 2005 after another rally near the site of the Superior Ink building, which was threatened for demolition to build a 20-story, 270 ft. tall building, the good news finally came: the City announced that downzoning and landmark plans for the Far West Village would be released. On October 11, 2005, the Far West Village rezoning passed and was enacted into law by the City Council with no rollbacks. As we reported in 2005:
REZONING PASSES: In an enormous victory for Far West Village preservation efforts, today the City Council voted OVERWHELMINGLY to enact the Far West Village rezoning plan, which takes effect immediately. No changes or “rollbacks” were made to the rezoning plan, in spite of 11th hour efforts by several developers to weaken the downzoning for their sites.
The rezoning, resulting from proposals submitted by GVSHP and the Greenwich Village Community Task Force in 2004 and a year-long campaign to fight for its passage, will substantially decrease the allowable height and bulk of new development in much of the Far West Village, preventing further out-of-scale high rise construction.
Earlier this year, we successfully beat back a move by the Mayor to roll back the zoning protections we had fought for and secured for the Far West Village.
Click here for more recent news about the Far West Village including updates on proposed developments at 85 Jane Street, 11 Jane Street, and the Hudson River Park Pier 40 Air Rights Issue. Click here to see a Far West Village rezoning and landmarks map. Read more about the rezoning here.