Re-zoning is planned for Chelsea.

City Planning has certified the start of the Uniform Land Use Review process for rezoning of western portions of Chelsea. The changes, when implemented, are expected to allow more residential uses in areas previously reserved for manufacturing and is reflective, once again, of the continued decline of blue collar jobs in the City.

It reduces density in some areas and increases it in others, but overall, the goals were to preserve the physical character in the historical areas while providing opportunities for housing and revitalizing underutilized manufacturing land.

"The Board has always been encouraging the City to re-zone and utilize manufacturing areas for residential, and we believe that this is one of the locations that has potential for housing, and it compliments another rezoning on Sixth Avenue," said Michael Slattery, a senior vice president of the Real Estate Board of New York (REBNY).

One difference in the current plan from one initially proposed is that 23rd Street west of Tenth Avenue will not be tagged with a commercial C-6 zone, which would have allowed Costco to create a large supermarket under a residential building it was planning for a development site it recently acquired. Instead, the area will get a mixed-use designation.

"The proposal had a very nice balance, and it was a better proposal as originally contemplated with a C-6 on the 23rd Street corridor," said Paul D. Selver, a land use attorney with Battle Fowler.

In general, he noted, the City took areas where there were more vacant sites and rezoned to make it easier to develop with new residential, but at current densities, and in the historic areas, reduced densities and reduced the allowable envelopes.

"The down-zoned areas were so built up and finished in terms of the [current] development that the impact on housing production and the real estate will be minimal," Selver explained.

Broker David Brimlow, head of Brimlow Realty, which is an area brokerage and management firm, is representing an owner who is selling a building on 22nd Street that is not included in the re-zoned area.

"A prospective buyer was concerned about the zoning, and he was willing to pay full price," said Brimlow, who will now be lobbying to expand the boundaries.

The areas covered by the changes include from roughly Sixth to Tenth avenues and from 14th Street to 30th Street.

Some areas will be re-zoned with contextual districts to allow new residential development, but at appropriate densities. Other areas will be allowed greater residential densities and new construction.