Map showing area where the text amendment would apply. View a larger image. View the Presentation The Department of City Planning is proposing a zoning text amendment and City Map change to facilitate commercial development along Madison and Vanderbilt avenues in Manhattan, improve pedestrian circulation within Grand Central Terminal and its vicinity, and allow greater opportunity for area landmarks to transfer their unused development rights. These actions are proposed concurrently with a private application for special permits to redevelop the block bounded by East 43rd Street to the north, East 42nd Street to the south, Madison Avenue to the west and Vanderbilt Avenue to the east (the “One Vanderbilt” site). A presentation describing the proposal can be accessed here. For questions regarding this proposal, please email: EastMidtown@planning.nyc.gov Background Vanderbilt Corridor Vanderbilt Avenue runs for five blocks in East Midtown between East 42nd and East 47th streets. The east side of the street is primarily made up of the Grand Central Terminal superblock, which consists of Grand Central Terminal and the Met Life office building. The west side of the street is made up of five blocks (the Vanderbilt Corridor) that contain commercial buildings of a variety of scales, ranging from mid-range structures like the existing MTA headquarters along Madison Avenue to the 750-foot tall 383 Madison Avenue office building. The corridor is very well served by public transportation, with underground connections linking all five blocks to the Grand Central Terminal complex. In addition, the MTA’s East Side Access project, which will bring Long Island Rail Road customers to East Midtown with a one-seat ride, is under construction below the corridor. However, the City has identified infrastructure and public realm challenges in the area, such as congestion in the Grand Central subway station, crowded sidewalks and a lack of publicly accessible open space. Photo of Vanderbilt Avenue Existing Zoning The blocks of the Vanderbilt Corridor are mapped in a C5-3 (15.0 FAR) district and are located in the Grand Central Subdistrict of the Special Midtown District. The Subdistrict was put in place in 1992 to allow the transfer of development rights from Grand Central and other City-designated landmarks to development sites in the vicinity of the Terminal, and to facilitate the creation of an improved pedestrian realm in the area. The borders of the Grand Central Subdistrict were generally drawn around the area where Grand Central Terminal’s below-grade pedestrian network then existed. In the existing core area of the Grand Central Subdistrict (between Madison and Lexington avenues from East 41st to East 48th streets, including the Vanderbilt Corridor) the maximum permitted site floor area ratio (FAR) can be increased to 21.6 FAR through a transfer from a landmark building and requires a City Planning Commission (CPC) special permit applicable in the Subdistrict. The permit requires that a pedestrian improvement be provided as part of the project. Since its adoption in 1992, only one building (383 Madison Avenue) has utilized this provision. Additionally, 1.0 FAR transfers are permitted through a certification process in the core and a larger area which includes the western side of Madison Avenue and eastern side of Lexington Avenue. This provision has been used three times. Beyond these transfer mechanisms, two methods exist to obtain higher floor area ratios. First, transit improvement bonuses of up to 20 percent of the permitted base FAR are permitted for sites directly adjacent to subway entrances and along Vanderbilt Avenue. (For a history of the subway station improvement bonus, please click here.) Second, existing landmarks can transfer their remaining development rights to sites that are adjacent or across streets, with no FAR limits on the receiving site. Both of these bonuses are only permitted through special permits granted by the CPC. The 1.0 FAR bonus applicable in Midtown for the provision of a public plaza does not apply in the Grand Central Subdistrict. Rationale for the Vanderbilt Corridor Text Amendment The City believes these provisions do not offer adequate opportunity to address the scope and scale of these challenges. DCP is proposing the Vanderbilt Corridor text amendment in order to address the number of development sites along Vanderbilt Avenue that offer the opportunity to provide modern commercial space in the immediate vicinity of Grand Central Terminal in the near term, to create a mechanism for linking new commercial development to significant transit and public realm improvements in the overall Grand Central Terminal area, and to provide greater options for the transfer of unused landmark development rights. For example, Green 317 Madison LLC (317 Madison) is proposing to redevelop the One Vanderbilt site as an approximately 1.8 million-gross-square-foot (1,299,390-zoning-square-foot) 30.0 FAR mixed-use building containing offices, trading floors, retail, restaurant, an enclosed public space at ground level and rooftop amenity space. The MTA headquarters site along Madison Avenue between East 44th and East 45th streets is currently the subject of a Request for Proposals (RFP) to transfer the site to a developer as a private redevelopment opportunity. Plans call for the MTA to vacate the site in 2015 and, when chosen, a developer would then construct a new building on the site if approved for either the Grand Central Public Realm Improvement Bonus or the Grand Central Landmark Transfer special permit, or some combination thereof. 2013 East Midtown Rezoning Proposal The area affected by the proposed actions was previously the subject of the 2013 East Midtown Rezoning proposal, which was intended to encourage new, predominantly office development in East Midtown to protect and strengthen the area’s role as a premier business district. While there was broad agreement on the need to refresh East Midtown, there were a number of concerns raised during the project’s public review process and the proposal was withdrawn in November 2013. In May 2014, the City announced a multi-part approach to developing a new plan for East Midtown. This included a longer-term, stakeholder-driven process to determine a new framework for the overall area, as well as a more focused proposal for the Vanderbilt Corridor. The Vanderbilt Corridor proposal addresses specific concerns raised during the public review process of the more extensive 2013 East Midtown proposal.