Rezoning Could Revitalize Webster Ave.
as published in the Norwood News
Ozzie Brown looks at the oil-drenched industrial stretch of Webster Avenue and sees a completely different future for this wide corridor that runs parallel to the Bronx River.
"We want to see bookstores, museums and cafés, so that it has a village feel," said Brown, the chair of Community Board 7's Land Use Committee. "We want to see nightlife, cuisine and culture."
The Department of City Planning, working closely with Brown's committee and the whole board, have drafted a plan designed to bring in new apartment buildings, stores and businesses on Webster, between Fordham Road and Gun Hill Road.
Auto repair shops, parking lots and hair salons currently dominate the almost two-mile stretch of road on the eastern edge of Norwood, Bedford Park and North Fordham. It also hosts a large supermarket, a discount wallpaper warehouse, and a small Halal poultry shop.
The area's zoning designation, which dates back to pre-1974 when the Third Avenue El (now dismantled) still defined the road, restricts new development to heavy industrial use.
"It's kind of stuck in time, this little area," said Carol Samol, the director of the Bronx office of City Planning.
The zoning came to the attention of Community Board 7 when a developer moved to locate a hotel close to PS/IS 20. The hotel is still being built, but the board wants to avoid similar development in the future.
Joe Muriana, an associate vice-president at Fordham University, said the Bronx Four Institutions Alliance, a coalition that includes Fordham, the New York Botanical Garden, Bronx Zoo and Montefiore Medical Center (all of which are located in close proximity to Webster), has been advocating for a similar vision.
"We were like two ships headed in the same direction," he said.
Muriana said Fordham has no current plans to develop in the area itself, but that the University would like to see investment in a mix of residences and resident-friendly stores.
But rezoning provides no more than a framework for development. Developers must actually invest in the area.
Board member Barbara Stronczer, who lives near Webster, worries private investment won't be sufficient to provide for the corridor's revitalization.
"On paper the plans look wonderful," Stronczer said. "City Planning did a wonderful job, but it's not City Planning's job to make sure that we get the services, and that's what concerns me."
Stronczer said the area needs more banks and produce markets, and could benefit from an additional grocery store -- exactly the kinds of businesses rezoning advocates hope to attract. But she also remembers that the city predicted a revitalization of the area after the demolition of the Third Avenue El.
"We all have a vision, but having seen what happened in the '70s and seen what the area looks like today, I'm not so sure," she said. "The city promised that Webster Avenue would have many improvements, and things fell short of that."
Fernando Tirado, CB 7's district manager, said that things have changed since the '70s. He anticipates the rezoning will bring new jobs to the area, either through the expansion of current employers or the attraction of new employers.
It remains unclear how existing businesses will be affected. A handful of business owners on Webster weren't aware of the zoning changes. Tirado said the board alerted property owners to a forum on the rezoning proposal at PS/IS 20 on March 5. But that information may not have trickled down to merchants.
The owner of a hair salon on Webster said she didn't know about the rezoning effort, but welcomed any changes that might make the area better.
In addition to allowing a greater range of development on Webster, the plan would change the zoning of the adjacent residential areas to protect two- and three-story houses from replacement by apartment buildings.
Richard Guether, the city planner working with the community board to devise the plan, said that the proposal is an ongoing process. He predicts the formal public review process will begin in the fall.
tagged with: Bedford Park, Fordham, land use, Norwood, Norwood News, Webster Avenue
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