Mayor’s Bloomberg’s east Midtown rezoning project is delayed – not dead – according to the legislator whose district it covers.
City Councilman Dan Garodnick said Wednesday that Mayor-Elect Bill de Blasio is on board with revamping and continuing the ambitious project, which was suddenly shelved this week.
“We are encouraged that Mayor-elect de Blasio has said that he is going to put a plan together next year. This should be a high priority,” Garodnick said, adding that the Council felt there wasn’t enough time to resolve all the issues under existing guidelines.
The plan, intended to produce taller and more modern buildings within a 73-block area around Grand Central Terminal, lacks the support of a majority of the 51 Council members.
The Council cited a number of concerns, including the sale price of valuable air rights and the uncertainty of funding for promised transit improvements.
Bloomberg and other proponents have argued that the affected area hadn’t seen significant development in decades and would crumble toward irrelevancy without the rezoning.
“There’s general recognition that we’re on the right track. We just weren’t able to cross all “Ts” and dot all “Is” in the time frame we had,” Garodnick said. “It’s an important initiative but one with too many outstanding issues.”