By Matthew Sollars  Published: September 21, 2008 - 5:59 am After several false starts—including a 2005 tweak that most residents say did more harm than good—a sweeping rezoning of Staten Island's downtown St. George area is finally moving forward. The new rules will pave the way for the construction of residential towers as tall as 20 stories, and encourage retail and commercial development along the neighborhood's main streets.

The goal is to design a compact community centered around the Staten Island Ferry Terminal, explains Borough President James Molinaro, who supports the rezoning. “We want to create a town--center atmosphere where people have no need for an automobile.”City Council to vote The plan was approved by the City Planning Commission earlier this month despite objections by some residents, who voiced concerns about overdevelopment and other matters. It will go to the City Council for approval next month.

“The new zoning will create an urban environment and a logistical flow to the area,” says Thomas Kerbleski, a local real estate broker with Casandra Properties. “Before, it was really a mishmash.”

Along with spurring commercial development, the rezoning will allow large residential development in the area, which has been rebounding recently after years of being largely ignored by retailers and developers.

“This is a very clear signal of the re-emergence and ultimate vitality of St. George,” says Joseph Carroll, district manager of Staten Island Community Board 1, which includes the neighborhood.

Kamillah Hanks, the executive director of the Downtown Staten Island Council, and a strong backer of the rezoning plan from the get-go, notes that size has its benefits.

“We're all for more density in downtown,” she says. “In order to revitalize our retail and commercial areas, we need more people to use them.”

Still, Ms. Hanks does have some regrets. Her efforts to include incentives to bolster the neighborhood's growing arts community went nowhere.Opposition quashed David Goldfarb, an attorney and a past president of the St. George Civic Association, fought the new zoning on a number of fronts. He believes city planners failed to do enough to prevent a wall of towers from sprouting up in the neighborhood. In the end, the city reduced the bulk of the buildings, but developers can still erect towers up to 200 feet tall—roughly 20 stories.

Mr. Goldfarb also pushed for assurances that the new development would bring with it new schools. Pointing to examples of classroom shortages that have cropped up in newly fashionable neighborhoods across the city, Mr. Goldfarb wanted a provision in the zoning that would firmly tie increases in residential units to the construction of new schools. That proposal, too, was rejected.

“Out of seven suggestions that we made, we got one-half of one suggestion approved,” says Mr. Goldfarb. “We still feel the towers are much too big for the neighborhood.”

City Councilman Michael McMahon's recommendations fared far better. He had asked the city to decrease the heights of the towers. Now that the scale of the buildings has been reduced, Mr. McMahon says he will vote in favor of the plan when it reaches the council floor.

“The revised plan seems to be a good meeting of the minds,” says a spokesman for Mr. McMahon.

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