North Tribeca Rezoning Plan Draws Critics at CB1 Meeting by Barry Owens A draft of the city's proposal for the rezoning of northern Tribeca, presented publicly for the first time last month, drew criticism from residents and members of Community Board 1 who fear that the neighborhood's low-rise and low-key charm will be lost in the shadows of taller buildings and the rush of increased traffic. The Jack Parker Group wants to build residential towers on a four-block site between West and Washington Streets, from Watts Street to Hubert Street. The developer's application to the city's Department of City Planning had requested permission to build three buildings up to 210 feet tall on West Street, an area of mostly low-rise buildings, prompting the community board's call for a rezoning of the neighborhood. The city drafted a rezoning plan that would create C6-3A zoning on those four waterfront blocks, allowing buildings to have a maximum height of 160 feet and a maximum floor area ratio (FAR) of 7.5. That is considerably bigger than is permitted in much of the rest of Tribeca, but smaller than the developer wants. Members of the community board's Tribeca Committee, concerned that large new developments will block light and air, were troubled by the proposed size limits and prefer a 5 FAR. (FAR refers to the bulk of a building. A building on a site with a 5 FAR limit, for example, can be five stories high if it covers the entire lot, but can be taller if it covers less of the lot or has setbacks.) Elsewhere in the neighborhood, the city is proposing a C6-2A zoning with a maximum building height of 120 feet and an FAR of 6. East of Sixth Avenue, the FAR would drop to 5. "We are trying to find a balance," said Edith Hsu Chen, the City Planning Department's deputy director for Manhattan. She noted that the agency did a block-by-block analysis of the neighborhood and found that 120-foot heights would not be out of context, as some buildings in the area rise as high as 150 feet and "75 percent of the buildings have an FAR of 5 or greater." "We see this as a real opportunity to offer more distinctive developments," Chen said. Carol De Saram, chairwoman of the Tribeca Committee and a veteran of zoning battles in northern Tribeca, sees the plan differently. "This is our last Waterloo," she said. De Saram requested that the city provide additional materials, such as the height of each building in the district and traffic studies that project the impact of the proposed zoning. Committee members said they were also worried that the neighborhood, lacking schools, grocery stores and other amenities, will not be able to support the influx of new families that residential towers will bring. "There isn't the infrastructure in place in Tribeca right now to sustain the kind of development you're talking about," said Giselle Hantz, a committee member. "It means that Tribeca will be an overcrowded and unpleasant place to live." There is little argument, however, that northern Tribeca's current zoning- for a manufacturing district-is outdated. Developers who want to build residential housing there must apply for a zoning variance, unlike in areas with commercial zoning rules like those that the city is proposing. Tribeca south of North Moore Street was rezoned in 1995. Chen said the city's zoning proposal was a preliminary draft, to be revised and resubmitted to the board next summer.