CONTEXTUAL HEIGHT
OF THE LOWER EAST SIDE
NORTH OF HOUSTON STREET
An address-by-address, lot-by-lot survey
November 2006
Conducted by Lower East Side Residents for Responsible Development
Survey I: Representative Streets

Background
This survey was conducted during the first week of November, 2006, by Lower East Side Residents for Responsible Development (LESRRD), an East Village community network, as a community informational project in preparation for a public presentation of a rezoning plan by the Department of City Planning (DCP), November 6, 2006. The goal has been to provide the public, the local Community Board and the City with reliable, up-to-date data on the height of existing structures for the determination of contextual height, the general height of buildings in the Lower East Side north of Houston street. The survey was commissioned and paid for entirely by LESRRD. No funds were sought or accepted from any other source.

Method
Constraints of time and budget prohibiting a survey of the entire proposed zoning area, LESRRD decided to choose, as a first installment of a larger survey, one entire characteristic street and one entire characteristic avenue running through the “East Village” section of the zoning area, Houston east of Bowery/3rd Avenue north to 14th Street. Houston Street itself was included to provide data on the number of easily developed “soft” sites, information crucial to judging the impact of DCP's proposed upzoning of that street.
The survey consisted of a walk through, address-by-address, of each of the chosen streets. Each building was recorded individually with the following information (see the sample record sheet attached): number of lots, number of stories, type of use, period of construction, and number of commercial uses. Type of use included residential, religious, commercial, educational. For lots with no construction, types included park, playground, vacant lot, garden, yard. Serial (contiguous) lots with no construction were counted as one address, with the number of lots recorded under lot number. Period of construction was identified by a variety of historical clues including architectural detail, type, size and color of brick, ceiling height, building height, number of units and number of lots, which clues, taken all together, almost always provide a reliable profile of estimated age. Periods included Pre-Law (prior to 1867), Old Law (to 1901), New Law (to ca. 1920), Pre-World War II (to the 1940's), Post-World War II (through the 1980's), Gentrification (to present).

Data
1st Avenue
#stories_____0___1___2___3___4____5____6____>6*___total
#addresses___2___4___2___5__40___87___15_____1____156
#lots_______2___6___2___12__43___98___19_____1____183

11th Street
#stories_____0___1___2___3____4____5____6___>6*___total
#addresses__11___3___1___6____30___49___28___4____132
#lots______25___3___1___9____35___65___42___6____186

Houston Street**
#stories_____0___1___2___3____4____5____6___>6*___total
#addresses __10__19___4___9___14___27____24___4___111
#lots_______34__35__4___16___19___30____28__18___184

Totals:
#stories_____0___1___2____3____4_____5____6___>6*__total
#addresses __23__26___7___20___84____163___67___9___399
#lots_______61__44___7___37___87____193___89__25___553

Analysis
Of the three streets, First Avenue has the most consistent overall context, mostly 5 story buildings with a large number of 4 story buildings as well, and little else besides. Only 10% of its buildings rise above 5 stories. Over half the buildings – 56% -- are 5 stories tall, 26% stand 4 stories tall. Roughly the same holds true by lot: 54% of lots (not counting 0-story lots) are occupied by 5 story structures. Only 11% of lots have buildings taller than 5 stories. Both median and mode are 5 stories and the mean is between 4 and 5 stories.

11th Street shows only a slightly broader range: 40% of buildings stand 5 stories tall, but 23% rise to 6 stories and an additional 3% rise above 6 stories. 40% of lots (not counting the 0-story lots) are occupied by 5 story buildings, 30% rise above 5 stories. Again, the median and mode are 5 stories, the mean only slightly below.

Houston Street presents a broad spectrum of structures including many soft sites – taxpayers, empty lots and two-story buildings. The data on Houston also reflect the consequences of recent out-of-scale development. Already 12% of its lots are built out-of-scale, not counting any of the new Avalon structures.

Overall the neighborhood appears to have a fairly consistent context. In the area surveyed, 40% of lots are built to 5 stories, 20% are built to 4 stories, 18% are built to 6 stories. Only 4% are taller than 6 stories. 38% are under 5 stories (not counting 0-story lots), only 22% are taller than 5 stories.

Conclusion
A realistic and reasonable zoning would include a 60-foot height cap, a base FAR of perhaps 2 bonusable to 4
with affordable housing. This would be similar to an Inclusionary Zoning R6-B but with a lowered base FAR, something akin to mandatory affordable housing. That would preserve our neighborhood context, protect low-income tenants from development-hungry landlords, and create new affordable housing wherever development is ripe (vacant lots and single story non-residential retailers).

Contrary to the expectation that avenues are built taller than side-streets, the buildings on 1st Avenue are typically much lower than those on 11th Street: 89% of buildings on 1st Avenue are 5 stories or lower; only 70% on 11th Street. This is obvious to anyone who has enjoyed the view of wide-open sky on 1st Avenue. More important, a great many of the four-story pre-Law tenements house only three tenants each, which makes them targets for landlord harassment and eviction in an upzoned neighborhood. The DCP plan could create great pressure on a landlord who owns a 4-story tenement with three tenants to evict, demolish and build 8 stories for 16 tenants even at the proposed FAR of 4. The suggestion that avenues should be zoned taller than side-streets should not be assumed -- it requires substantial justification and careful scrutiny, especially considering the historical character of the neighborhood. In large part First Avenue retains the appearance it had in the second half of the 19th century. The tenements are mostly pre-Law (pre 1867); there are fewer Old and New Law tenements – the tenements that rise to 6 stories -- than elsewhere in the district. Development is more appropriate in less historically significant neighborhoods (almost any neighborhood in the city is less historically significant than the LES) and the avenues in the LES are at least as historically rich and well-preserved as the sidestreets.

Proposals
Based on these data, LESRRD offers three proposals for the Lower East Side:
1.R6-B (60-foot height cap) with a base 2.0 FAR bonusable to 4.0 FAR with affordable housing.
2.Moratorium on construction until final approval of a zoning plan (after City Council Int. 679/2005).***
3.Historical District designation for the Lower East Side.


*Buildings over 6 stories are so few and so variable in height that I grouped them together in one category. They represent only 2% of the buildings of the neighborhood, statistically insignificant.
**Because Houston does not fit the 1811 grid, lot size is often difficult to gage. But rendering both the addresses and the lots increases the precision of the picture.
***”By Council Members Avella, Comrie, Fidler, Gentile, Gonzalez, James, Koppell, Martinez, McMahon, Nelson, Palma, Recchia Jr., Sanders Jr., Vacca, Vann, White Jr., Mendez, Monserrate, Addabbo Jr., Mark-Viverito, Weprin and Oddo ..Title A Local Law to amend the administrative code of the city of New York, in relation to the issuance of building permits for areas where a rezoning application is pending. ..Body Be it enacted by the Council as follows: Section 1. Section 27-191 of the administrative code of the city of New York is amended by lettering the existing section as subdivision a and adding a new subdivision b to read as follows:b. Upon the filing with the council of an application for rezoning by the city planning commission pursuant to section one hundred ninety-seven-d of the charter, the department shall not, except under exigent circumstances involving safety and health, issue any permits for either: (1) new building, (2) alteration, (3) foundation and earthwork, or (4) demolition and removal, within the area that is the subject of the rezoning application until the completion of the uniform land use review procedure process with regards to this application. For the purposes of this subdivision, the term “completion” shall include the requisite passage of time in accordance with all provisions of section 197-d of the charter. Following such completion, the department may issue such permits, in accordance with all applicable provisions of zoning, laws and rules, within the area that was the subject of the rezoning.”

I've opened this blog to discuss what's happening to the LES and consider whether any of its mixed community, counterculture and heritage can be saved against the onslaught of luxury development. Although the character of the community has already been irretrievably altered, there's still something here worth holding on to.

I moved from uptown down here to 11th Street between B & C in the 1970's. I knew as soon as I arrived that this was the place for me, and I've lived here ever since. The LES was not just different then -- it was like a different planet. It was rough, but I miss the way it was. It had character.

Now we have a Duane Reade on Avenue B. Is life worth living?

No kidding.

I've been busy over the last year learning about the legal and municipal underpinnings of the LES. We're about to be rezoned here, and the rezoning plan looks to be pretty good. There are some controversial elements to the new zoning, and I expect to have plenty of opportunity to explain them here. That's a big part of my goal in creating this blog: I'm hoping it will provide LES residents with a place to find reliable information on the neighborhood, and not just a place to share perspectives.

I run a network called Lower East Side Residents for Responsible Development (LESRRD). The name is meant to sound "responsible" to disguise its underlying subversive goal: to prevent the old LES from being swept away by developers and commercial speculators (that's code for trendy bars). LESRRD has promoted or collaborated in a bunch of projects including the LES Alliance, which held a very successful Town Hall meeting November 2005 on bar proliferation. Right now LESRRD is focused on community preservation -- keeping as much of the old, marginal, funky and ethnically mixed LES alive.

The heart of LESRRD is an e-mail notification service. I send out bulk e-mails about the serious events and meetings that affect the future of the neighborhood. I also organize actions through the list network. I'm always looking for more addresses to add to LESRRD. The volume is not heavy -- two or three posts per week. If you're interested in what's happening down here, send me your address and I'll hook you up -- robcuny@gmail.com.

Education preserves; LESRRD is actively engaged in educating people about the LES. One of my happiest projects has been, in collaboration with East Village Community Media, historical guided tours of the East Village. (I usually reject the name "East Village" as a realtor's invention, but it's sometimes convenient to distinguish the LES north of Houston from the LES south of Houston. The two areas have distinct histories although by the 1860's they had merged as the tenements built for new immigrants spread north from Five Points over both neighborhoods.) I lead walking tours every Saturday and Sunday. They are heavy on the social history told through the architecture, but on the way there are plenty of colorful stories and neighborhood secrets as well. If you're interested in the tours, contact me at robcuny@gmail.com. For a complete schedule of all the East Village Community Media tours visit their website, www.east-village.com. EVCM has been a great community resource, run by one of the truly dedicated lifelong LES residents, a man of infinite heart, Eric Ferrara. Honor to work with you, Eric!

There's actually a whole bunch of wonderful folks involved in one way or another in saving the LES. There's even a Coalition to Save the East Village full of just the best EV folks you could hope to know. I'm expecting all those characters to make their appearance here from time to time.

I don't know if my antique web browser will support this blog, so don't be surprised if I disappear or take a while to respond on blog.