FOR
IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 21, 2004
CONTACT:
Rachaele Raynoff (City Planning) - (212) 720-3471
CITY PLANNING
CERTIFIES HUDSON YARDS PLAN BEGINNING PUBLIC REVIEW
OF WEST SIDE REDEVELOPMENT AS ECONOMIC ENGINE FOR
NYC
June 21, 2004 -A far-reaching, historic
plan to transform an under-utilized swath of the
west side of Manhattan, known as Hudson Yards, into
a thriving business and residential district officially
entered the public review process, City Planning
Director Amanda M. Burden announced today. Through
changes to zoning to permit new commercial and residential
development, create vast new public parks and unique
open spaces, and extend the Number 7 train, this
comprehensive plan is the Bloomberg administration’s
most significant economic development project. The
long term plan is expected to create more than 100,000
permanent jobs, result in more than 12,000 new units
of affordable and market rate housing, and generate
billions of dollars of new revenues for the City
and State. This critical public action is closely
integrated with the State’s proposal to create
a Convention Corridor on 11th Avenue, which will
encompass the expansion of the Jacob K. Javits Convention
Center and the construction of the New York Sports
and Convention Center.
"Hudson Yards is the single best
investment we can make in our City’s future,
besides the redevelopment of Lower Manhattan. It
will generate tens of thousands of jobs and billions
in new tax revenue for the City and State over the
next several decades," said Deputy Mayor Daniel
L. Doctoroff. He noted, "It provides room for
midtown – the largest and most productive business
district in the nation – to grow while creating
the conditions for significant residential development.
By pairing this mixed-use community with the newly
created Convention Corridor, which is critical to
the future of the City’s tourism and hospitality
industries, we are confident that Hudson Yards will
be one of our City’s greatest success stories
for this century."
"This 360-acre plan is a monumental
and complex undertaking to develop, over time, an
area of Manhattan that will become one of the world’s
great urban places," said City Planning Director
Amanda M. Burden. "After input gathered in
the course of more than 100 meetings over the past
two years, City Planning’s urban design master
plan now responds to a variety of community and civic
concerns. We will create a more than 20-acre network
of public open spaces that will connect the Hudson
River to Midtown, Clinton, the Garment District,
Chelsea and the Village. The result is a plan that
will transform the area into a place where future
generations will clamor to live, work, invest, and
visit."
"By rebuilding the commercial
heart of Lower Manhattan in the near term, and planning
for the expansion of Midtown into Hudson Yards over
the long term, we are ensuring Manhattan's position
as the economic engine of our region while preventing
the sprawl that has overtaken most American cities," said
City Planning's Manhattan Director, Vishaan Chakrabarti. "Today
we initiate the rezoning of the 40-block area between
30th to 42nd Streets and Seventh to Eleventh Avenues.
Though surrounded by thriving neighborhoods, the
western portion of this area is today isolated from
public transportation, has scarce open space, and
is dominated by the pit of the railyards, parking
lots, and auto body shops. Adjacent to some of the
world’s most valuable real estate, this district
-- once transformed – is the only location
in Manhattan capable of housing the large floor plate
office buildings that employ our citizens and fuel
our economy and City."
As provided by City law, the rezoning
and related actions will undergo a formal public
review known as the Uniform Land Use Review Procedure
(ULURP) by the local community boards, the Borough
Board and Borough President, the City Planning Commission
and the City Council. These City actions include:
- Changing Hudson Yard’s
outdated manufacturing zones to encourage mixed-use
development. Over the next 40 years, this will
result in the creation of approximately 28 million
square
feet of commercial space and 12 million square
feet of residential space.
- Creating a Special Hudson Yards District
that permits densities that gradually increase going
west from the lower scale residential neighborhood
along Ninth Avenue, referred to by some as Hell’s
Kitchen’s "Main Street". The highest
densities are planned along the 34th Street corridor
and between 10th and 11th Avenues, close to existing
and planned mass transit. Special design controls
would encourage architectural innovation while ensuring
that new buildings relate to neighborhood context
where it exists. Requirements for street trees, wider
sidewalks and continuous retail will create a vibrant
pedestrian environment.
- Ensuring affordable housing development
by mapping inclusionary zoning to provide developers
with a floor area bonus in exchange for building
affordable housing in the district. This mechanism,
combined with other City financing incentives, is
expected to create almost 2,000 units of affordable
housing.
- Creating an open space network of more
than 20 acres. This network includes a grand public
square above the Eastern Rail Yards, two full-block
parks leading to the waterfront on 34th Street and
30th Street, a mid-block boulevard between Tenth
and Eleventh Avenues, and connections to the High
Line, an elevated linear park that is planned to
extend from Gansevoort to West 30th Street.
- Relocating necessary but unattractive municipal
facilities to new inland locations beneath new parkland.
Essential to the plan is the westward extension of
the Number 7 Subway line from its current terminus
in Times Square in order to place all of Hudson Yards
within a ten minute walk from the subway. The plan
envisions new stations at 41st Street and Tenth Avenue
and 34th Street and Eleventh Avenue. This new terminus
will be at the nexus of an expanded Javits Convention
Center, the New York Sports and Convention Center (NYSCC),
a new major cultural facility, the Eastern Railyards
public square, and significant new commercial and residential
development. The Number 7 line is key because it crosses
every north/south subway line in Manhattan, meaning
that virtually every New Yorker will reach the Hudson
Yards with no more than one transfer. Combined with
NJ Transit, LIRR, the potential for Metro-North access
into a new Moynihan Station, and the brand new 39th
Street ferry terminal, the Hudson Yards will become
a regional transportation hub much like the Grand Central
area and the planned World Trade Center site.
The MTA is a critical partner in making the Number
7 extension a reality, and is a co-applicant on the
environmental planning for the proposed extension.
The resulting Draft Environmental Impact Statement
(DEIS) covers the entire Hudson Yards area, including
west of 11th Avenue. The ULURP actions cover the area
generally east of 11th Avenue.
In February, the City announced that a new local development
corporation, the Hudson Yards Infrastructure Corporation
(HYIC) will serve as the financing vehicle for the
Hudson Yards initiative. The bonds issued by the HYIC
will be repaid by revenue generated through future
commercial and residential development in the Hudson
Yards. The total costs of the infrastructure to be
financed between 2005 and 2012 are projected to be
$2.77 billion, which will include the costs of:
- Construction of the Number 7 subway extension;
- The creation of a platform over what is
known as the Eastern Rail Yards,
between 30th & 33rd Streets from 10th to 11th
Avenues, to create a six-acre park and to allow for
development by private developers and cultural institutions;
and
- The new parks and streets and boulevard.
Payments in Lieu of Taxes on new development in Hudson
Yards are to be applied to pay for the City’s
costs of preparing the area for the new growth. Densities
were planned to facilitate development of buildings
of appropriate scale for the area, to respond to anticipated
demand for Class A office space and housing over the
next 40 years, to generate sufficient revenue to finance
construction of the Number 7 subway line extension
and to create the open space. Developers would be permitted
to construct additional floor area in exchange for
providing affordable housing or for contributing to
a district improvement fund.
The Bloomberg Administration believes that making
the infrastructure investments in the Hudson Yards
Redevelopment Area will be vital for the City’s
economic growth over the next three decades. For details
on the financing plans, see http://www.nyc.gov/html/omb/pdf/press02_04a.pdf.
Additional details and illustrations of the rezoning
proposal are available on the City Planning website
at http://www.nyc.gov/html/dcp/html/hyards/hymain.shtml.
Concurrent
with the investments described above, the State of
New York, supported by the City of New York, will expand
and modernize the Javits Convention Center by doubling
the amount of exhibition space, increasing the amount
of meeting space more than ten-fold, creating the largest
ballroom in New York City and constructing a new hotel
with up to 1,500 rooms. The City and the State will
also develop the New York Sports and Convention Center
(NYSCC) to be built on a platform over rail yards located
just south of the Javits Center. The NYSCC will operate
primarily as a 200,000 square foot, column free exhibition
hall with 30,000 square feet of meeting space. Because
it will have a retractable roof and moveable seating,
it will also be able to operate as a stadium seating
75,000 people, or as a plenary hall seating up to 40,000
people. It will serve as the future home of the New
York Jets football team as well as the Olympic stadium
if the City is selected to host the 2012 Olympic Games.
While the Convention Corridor project has been studied
extensively in the Hudson Yards EIS, it will be subject
to the State's General Project Plan (GPP) process,
and financed separately from the City projects.
City Planning has held nearly 100 meetings with civic
and community groups as it developed the comprehensive
Hudson Yards proposal and has incorporated many constructive
ideas into the plan. The EIS for the project analyzes
a number of proposed alternatives, as required by environmental
regulations.
The official public review of the City actions for
the City’s Hudson Yards ULURP is expected to
conclude in January 2005 with a vote at the City Council.
About City Planning
The Department of City Planning is responsible for
the City's physical and socioeconomic planning,
including land use and environmental review; preparation
of
plans and policies; and provision of technical
assistance and planning information to government
agencies,
public
officials, and community boards.
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