Eort to Fill SoHo’s Housing Need Creates New Necessity: Parking

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The New York Sun

Don’t even think of parking in SoHo. Parking spots are the hot new commodity in the stylish district as nearly every lot is being demolished to put up luxury housing.


“It is a nightmare,” said the director of the SoHo Alliance, Sean Sweeney, who has parked his jalopy on the street for 30 years, but has been forced to take drastic measures lately to find parking. While he won’t discuss his methods, he will admit that, to create more spots, “people are tearing down signs.”


Mr. Sweeney, along with members of Community Board 2, have been working to alleviate the parking crunch and have decided to replace some commercial parking spots that line Houston and Sullivan streets with residential parking.


“But this isn’t enough, we are losing thousands of parking spots, and this will only replace a handful,” Mr. Sweeney said. He counted 1,000 lost spaces last year before he stopped keeping track. He estimates that the neighborhood has “lost close to 2,000 spaces south of 14th Street in the past two years.”


And things are only getting worse. A zoning change by the Department of City Planning last year opened the doors to residential development in the neighborhood, and most every parking lot is being turned into housing. Developers include hoteliers Andre Balazs and Richard Born, and local landlords include Kamran Hakim.


On Bond Street alone, two parking lots are being replaced with residential buildings, while construction is nearly complete for two buildings put up on former parking lots on Houston Street off Broadway.


“We are replacing only 100 spots,” said Mr. Born of his new development on the northeast corner of Bond Street. He said the lack of parking in the neighborhood is no big deal. He explains, “There are some lots left in the area, and most people don’t have cars.”


The city’s Department of Environmental Protection has added to the dearth of parking spots by claiming some garages for its project to build a third water tunnel under the city. The parking lots to be closed to make way for water shafts include one on Houston and Hudson Street and another on Grand Street and Lafayette.


“Just about every last building going up used to be a parking lot,” said the chairman of Community Board 2’s zoning committee and longtime SoHo resident David Reck.


While locals bemoan the lack of parking, a real estate broker, Faith Hope Consolo, said the new development projects are good for the area.


“The increased density of residential is going to increase retail demand and bring stability to the neighborhood so it doesn’t only depend on tourists,” she said.


The Department of City Planning instituted the zoning changes in response to the number of developers who were applying for variances from the Board of Standard and Appeals to build residential developments even though the neighborhood was zoned for manufacturing. Under the new zoning, the developers need a special building permit that involves more community input, including a community board hearing, a hearing by the City Planning Commission, and approval by the City Council, said the council member for the district, Alan Gerson.


“Prior to this special permit process being adopted, projects on these lots were…getting approved despite massive community opposition and unified opposition from local elected officials and the community board,” he said.


For those residents who need to park a car, the pickings are slim. There is a lone lot on Mercer Street between Houston and Prince streets that charges more than $40 a day and has no room for monthly spots, and another at the corner of Thompson and Broome streets that would rip a hole in anyone’s pocket.


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