PRESENTATION
Proposal 2: Simplify rules for business types allowed on commercial streets
0:21:50
·
3 min
Proposal 2 aims to standardize the types of businesses allowed in different commercial districts so that similar areas allow the same mix of businesses. Current rules are an inconsistent patchwork. The proposal would align the uses permitted in C1/C2 districts and C4-C7 districts.
Some quotes:
- "We want to simplify rules for business types that are allowed on commercial streets."
- "So you don't have one side of the street allowing some businesses that are not allowed on the side of the street, like you see in this slide here."
- "In Midtown Manhattan, you can cross from a C Five to a C Six District, you couldn't even tell."
- "We also want to remove ground floor limitation in C4 and C5 districts, places like 125th Street in Harlem, clothing, rental shops, dance studios, trade schools, they're allowed on the 2nd floor, but they're not allowed on the ground floor."
Dan Garodnick
0:21:50
Next slide.
0:21:52
Proposal 2.
0:21:54
We want to simplify rules for business types that are allowed on commercial streets.
0:22:01
So that similar districts allow for the same mix of businesses in similar contexts.
0:22:08
So you don't have one side of the street allowing some businesses that are not allowed on the side of the street, like you see in this slide here.
0:22:17
C1 and C2 is a particularly egregious example of this.
0:22:21
They're generally located in the same places.
0:22:25
Usually, a commercial carter has both of them.
0:22:28
And we have a patchwork of rules, which means you can look some types of businesses on one side of the street, but not on the other street.
0:22:35
That's complicated.
0:22:36
It's confusing.
0:22:37
It's bad for small businesses.
0:22:39
They have to struggle struggle to figure out what New York City's own rules are, and they don't make sense.
0:22:45
We also wanna permit the same uses in C4 to C7 districts.
0:22:51
In Midtown Manhattan, you can cross from a C Five to a C Six District, you couldn't even tell.
0:22:57
You wouldn't even know.
0:22:58
Gotta look at that zoning map to know that you're actually changing.
0:23:02
But for non office business regulations, they're completely different.
0:23:07
Planters had certain notions back in 19 61 about theaters, about billiard parlors, catering halls, those are the sorts of things that are both those are uses that are allowed in c 6, but not in c 5.
0:23:23
So functionally, Just to illustrate this, that means that those sorts of uses like a a theater or a billiard parlor.
0:23:30
You could allow it.
0:23:30
You would allow it in Flatiron or Union Square.
0:23:34
You wouldn't allow it in Grand Central.
0:23:36
Okay?
0:23:37
That's the distinction that you have when you walk through Midtown, those sorts of business distinctions.
0:23:42
Are existing today and make it impossible to have a billiard hall, let's say, in the Grand Central area.
0:23:49
We also want to remove ground floor limitation in C4 and C5 districts, places like 125th Street in Harlem, clothing, rental shops, dance studios, trade schools, they're allowed on the 2nd floor, but they're not allowed on the ground floor.
0:24:07
Rules that don't make any sense anymore.
0:24:11
Let's go to the next slide and let's give you an illustration.
0:24:13
This is something which is a C1 versus a C2 distinction here.
0:24:18
An owner of a bike shop on Columbus Avenue in Manhattan Valley in a C1.
0:24:24
On the Upper West Side, it's located has been there for a while looking to shift his services to bike rentals.
0:24:34
Instead of just sales.
0:24:36
C1 districts allow bike sales, but not rentals or repairs.
0:24:42
The c 2 district a couple of blocks away would allow it.
0:24:47
But he doesn't want to have to break his lease to move a couple of blocks away.
0:24:51
You should be able to do the rental, the repair, and the sales in the same context, in the same building.
0:24:57
Let's not force this guy to move out of his business.
0:25:00
Okay.