The big dynamism debate in New York City this week is going to involve density.

A developer, the Jack Parker Corporation, is seeking to rezone a four-block area in north TriBeCa bounded by Washington, Watts, Hubert, and West streets to residential from manufacturing use. The developer wants a density that would allow it to build an apartment building on a site it is leasing from another owner, Ponte Equities.

City Council members say they are prepared to reject the developer’s proposal based on community demands that allowable building density be reduced under the rezoning.The developer has said that a lower density would make it difficult for the company to recoup its investment and could force it to sell the site. Initially, the developer sought a floor-to-area ratio — which determines bulk and density — of 10 for a building of up to 210 feet. Its latest application is for a floor-to-area ratio of 6.5, and a base height of just more than 100 feet.

The neighborhood of TriBeCa has undergone a sea change in the last two or three decades, with luxury towers and converted apartment lofts replacing the factories and warehouses that once dominated the gritty, low-rise area.

The neighborhood is now part of the richest ZIP code in New York City and the 12th richest ZIP code in the country, according to a recent study by Forbes. Currently, only about 18% of north TriBeCa is zoned for residential use, and the development community is hoping to cash in on the seemingly insatiable demand for luxury housing.

Some area residents are fighting the developer’s attempted rezoning, which they say will worsen the area’s existing traffic problems and damage the neighborhood’s low-rise character. They say the area already has to deal with the overcrowded entrance to the Holland Tunnel and that high-rise development along the waterfront would block light and air, leaving the neighborhood to the east in shadow and cutting off residents from the Hudson River.

The developer’s rezoning proposal would preempt a separate comprehensive plan to rezone a wider swath of north TriBeCa. For about two years, the department of City Planning has been working on a rezoning plan in conjunction with the local Community Board 1.

In an advisory vote in March, the board unanimously rejected the developer’s application, saying it would prefer a floor-to-air ratio of five.

A representative of the developer would not comment on the application yesterday.

At a public hearing in May, a representative of the developer said its application was initiated before the community’s comprehensive rezoning plan was under way.

At the May meeting, a representative of the Real Estate Board of New York said the increased density would allow more apartments to meet the city’s growing demand for housing, and some neighbors said that increased residential development would make the neighborhood safer, add more retail, and increase street life.

In July, the planning commission approved a modified version of the developer’s proposed zoning, which would lower the density and base height enough to anger the developer but not enough to appease the community. Today, a City Council zoning subcommittee will hold a public hearing on the application, and the full council is expected to vote on it Wednesday.

Council Member Tony Avella, a Democrat of Queens who heads the zoning subcommittee, said he is inclined to reject the application. He said the proposal is part of a citywide trend of developer-driven rezonings.

“We still look at things on a case-by-case basis instead of doing comprehensive planning,” Mr. Avella said. “Involving the neighborhood and community in these instances is only an afterthought.”

Council Member Alan Gerson, a Democrat who represents TriBeCa, was negotiating with the developer’s representatives yesterday. Regarding land-use questions, the council typically sides with the opinion of the local representative. Mr. Gerson said a last-minute compromise is possible if the developer agrees to a lower-density plan that is more in line with the surrounding neighborhood.

He blames the impasse on City Planning, which he said was too slow to offer its own comprehensive rezoning plan.

“It should have been done already,” Mr. Gerson said.

A spokeswoman for the Department of City Planning, Rachaele Raynoff, said a wider rezoning is still in the works despite the developer’s proposal.

“The community and City Planning both agree that this is an area that is going to residential, and we are developing a consensus on just precisely what density it should be,” Ms. Raynoff said yesterday.