Unified Bulk Zoning Amendment.

You can't please all of the people, all of the time: As much as Planning Commissioner Joseph Rose wants to leave a mark on the city by imposing a be-all end-all height limitation on buildings, and maintain low squat structures outside of core Manhattan, he works for Mayor Rudy.

There are whisperings that Mayor Rudy is starting to get cauliflower ear from those that protest not yet too much about the Unified Bulk Zoning Amendment, and he sees the problems at hand if this goes forward. Will he pull back Planning 'till after the election? It's becoming a strong possibility and the more he hears from real estate, the more that may become reality.

And while you're writing, calling, and signing those campaign contributions, don't forget to remind the Mayor that the commercial rent tax is still in force, six years after said he'd get rid of it: specifically in December, 1995 when he proposed the Downtown Plan before the Association for a Better New York, led by developer and civic guru Lew Rudin.

"The object is to make development opportunities more as of right and predictable, and less subject to political interference and long, costly and debilitating delay," we quoted Mayor Rudy saying at that time. 'To accomplish these goals, he is proposing the temporary reduction of the commercial rent tax and said he is looking forward to eventually eliminating that tax.'

In the same article, we quoted Rose:

"We will undertake some zoning text changes to make it easier to convert buildings to residential use and create a special zoning district that will permit new development to proceed easily, and without the kind of regulatory obstruction that can make you miss business cycles."

To date, the Downtown plan has succeeded in reducing old office inventory and creating a residential community, but not one new office building has been erected.

The zoning text changes Rose is now proposing are exactly the kind that will inhibit development and make owners miss business cycles. 'Nuff said for now.