Borough Update: Lower East Side
By Joseph Coletti and David Quart
Last week, Manhattan’s Community Board 3 unanimously voted to approve a set of community-created planning guidelines for the redevelopment of 10 City-owned sites in the Seward Park area. The vote is the culmination of an extraordinary effort to build consensus in a very diverse community, and it ends more than 40 years of disagreement over what the community wants to see built on these sites. The NYCEDC team, along with our agency partners at Department of Housing Preservation and Development and Department of City Planning, is proud to have worked with members of the community as they take a historic step forward for the Lower East Side.
The guidelines—created over the past two years in a process led by CB3 Chair Dominic Pisciotta and David McWater, chair of CB3’s Land Use, Zoning, Public & Private Housing Committee—encompass several City-owned sites. Five sites located south of Delancey Street and east of Essex Street were part of the former Seward Park Urban Renewal Area (SPURA) and have remained underdeveloped since the 1960s. The remaining sites are located along the Essex Street corridor. Overall, these sites represent the largest contiguous parcel of underdeveloped City-owned land in Manhattan south of 96th Street. Learn more about Seward Park.
The approved guidelines outline the community’s consensus for the sites’ future, which include promoting economic development and creating affordable housing and community space that will further enhance this vibrant and diverse Lower East Side neighborhood. The guidelines give the City a strong framework for future planning, and we look forward to making further progress working side-by-side with members of Community Board 3, local residents, merchants and other community organizations. We are reviewing the community board guidelines and will come back to the February committee meeting to discuss next steps.
