Mayor Eric Adams is slated to advance the first neighborhood-wide rezoning of his term — a plan to spur some 7,000 new homes along a 46-block stretch of the east Bronx. The City Planning Commission is expected to vote Monday to move the plan into the roughly seven-month review process, which will culminate in a vote by the City Council later this year. The proposal — moving forward more than two years into Adams’ mayoralty — would make way for residential and commercial development in Morris Park, Parkchester and Van Nest along planned Metro North stations. It would span multiple Council districts, with most of the changes in areas represented by Council members Amanda Farías and Kristy Marmorato. The Adams administration has treaded carefully on neighborhood rezonings, with an eye toward avoiding the high-profile fights such plans often prompted under his predecessor, Bill de Blasio. Early in his mayoral term, de Blasio laid out goals to rezone 15 neighborhoods; his administration ended up completing eight, with a few proposals being scrapped after pushback from the Council. The two Council members who will largely decide the fate of the Bronx plan have a fairly positive view so far. Farías said the new housing will help “alleviate the burdens we have in our community — many people that are doubled up, tripled up, seniors that maybe don’t have the ability to move out of their current housing.” “Bringing any more housing to a community that’s at a deficit is important,” she said in an interview. Marmorato, who ran on a largely anti-development platform, appeared open to the rezoning at a recent community meeting. “Thank you for allowing us to have a say on what’s actually happening in and around our neighborhood,” she said. Council Member Rafael Salamanca, who chairs the land use committee, and whose district includes a small piece of the rezoning, said Adams has done a better job than his predecessor of getting input from local elected officials. Notably, Salamanca killed a de Blasio proposal to rezone up to 130 blocks of his district in 2020. He noted this most recent initiative is more modest in scope. “There’s not much land we’re talking about in terms of rezoning,” Salamanca said. Welcome to POLITICO New York Real Estate and Infrastructure. Please send tips, ideas, releases and corrections to jchadha@politico.com.
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