Photo by Valeria Rosalez.
The Upper West Side’s Community Board 7 is a group of about 50 people appointed by the borough president to review everything from local liquor licenses to new development applications to proposals for new bike lanes
On Wednesday, the board’s land use committee is holding a special meeting to introduce locals to its role in reviewing developments and zoning in the neighborhood. The meeting’s title is “The Role of the Community Board & Land Use Policies On the Upper West Side.” For people who would like to get involved in guiding land use decisions, it’s a good first step.
The meeting will be held at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday at Community Board offices on the 2nd floor of 250 West 87th street (just West of Broadway). Because space is limited, please RSVP to office@cb7.org.
wasn’t it whose envelope was bigger
A good “land use” north of 86th Street would be for CB7 to embrace more market-rate housing, which will greatly improve this area. There are plenty of “tax-payer” buildings and even a few empty lots that could be utilized without displacing any current residents. Other neighborhoods that are more open to development are full of life and their businesses are thriving. Yet here, CB7 seems to knee-jerk its opposition to any development that’s not a homeless shelter or supportive housing unit, and our neighborhood is in decline because of it.
I don’t know about the neighborhood in decline or the biases of the board, but I do agree that putting some of these empty spaces to work would be a boon to the neighborhood. I don’t think you can force people to use their own property, though, as long as they pay taxes and maintain them.