City Plans To Rezone Far West Village

The city is moving to rezone a six-block area in the far West Village, a victory for local preservation groups and a potential obstacle for developers in the area.

The rezoning would affect buildings between Washington and Greenwich streets, from 10th to 12th streets. The effort is expected to take six months to a year to complete.

The area currently has no height limits and allows bonuses, or greater sizes, for "commercial developments," such as hotels, and "community facilities," such as dorms. The new zoning would impose height limits on new development, limiting it to 40 to 65 feet at street wall, and a total height limit of 80 feet. Bonuses for commercial and community developments would be eliminated and all designs for new development would be subject to public hearings and approval by the city's Landmarks Preservation Commission.

Andrew Berman, executive director of the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, called the current zoning "outdated" and "anomalous."

A proposed hotel at 145 Perry Street was approved last year by the LPC, which reduced the height from 90 feet to 78 feet, after opposition from preservationists. In September, two townhouses adjacent to 145 Perry were listed at a combined $44 million for 14,000 square feet.

Developer Robert Gladstone of Madison Equities is developing the two townhouses in conjunction with the hotel which he called in a Times story "the love of my life — I’ve wanted to do that for a very long time."

But Mr. Gladstone may have to wait longer: Unless he builds the hotel's foundations or can show "substantial expenditures" before the new zoning takes effect, 145 Perry Street would have to conform to the new regulations. The GVSHP site notes that, following the LPC's height revisions, the hotel's current design will "roughly conform to the height limits of the new zoning," but may still require reductions. Mr. Berman said that construction had not begun on the hotel.