Mayor Withdraws Midtown East Rezone Plan

Mayor Michael Bloomberg has withdrawn a proposal that would have rezoned an area around Grand Central Terminal known as Midtown East after the City Council couldn't reach agreement on the plan. Under the proposed rezoning, some buildings would have been green-lighted for demolition, to be replaced with taller structures.

In a statement, the mayor said, "This will unfortunately cost the area hundreds of millions of dollars in badly needed subway and street improvements and $1 billion in additional tax revenue – as well as tens of thousands of new jobs that would have been created."

The area under consideration included buildings from East 39th Street to East 57th Street, and from Second and Third Avenues to the east and within a few hundred feet from Fifth Avenue to the west.

"After extensive negotiations, we have been unable to reach agreement on a number of issues in the proposed plan," said Council Speaker Christine C. Quinn and Council Member Dan Garodnick, whose district includes the area to be rezoned in Midtown.

The Council was concerned about the price, methodology and timing of the air rights to be sold by the City.

In the mayor's statement he said, "The inability to reach a consensus on the plan’s details is regrettable, but it was encouraging that nearly everyone involved in the process recognized the need for the area to be rezoned to ensure that it remains competitive with other business districts around the world."

The Department of City Planning of the City of New York wrote on its website that the proposal would "add approximately 4.5 million square feet of commercial space" to the area.

UPDATE:  An earlier version of this story ran before the mayor announced his administration is withdrawing the application to rezone East Midtown.

To hear an interview with New York City Councilman Daniel Garodnick click on audio player.