A ~· PLAN FOR PRESERVATION SEE CENTER PAGE FOR SUMMARY AND PROPOSALS CLINTON: Predominantly resi.dentialand low scale, yet mixed uses abound. Boundaries of the study area are indicated. Prologue of information gathered (most prior to our in~ been active participants in determining City policy Acknowledgments volvement) was· necessaty to prod uce a report of toward Clinton. Therefore, many of the introductory readable, yet informative scope and size. An outline of steps, such as developing goals, were well advanced at & Format the contents follows: the outset of this study. Starting with this groundwork The study process described below indicates the behind us, the task was fairly weIl defined. Although great deal of community participation and ac­ 1 SUMMARY (Centerfold) not all the problems had been isolated, a framework companying responsibility for this report. The study Existing Conditions in which this could be done had been established. The Subcommittee was chaired by John Duffel, who Proposals challenge was in finding solutions to many complex coordinated the many meetings and presentations issues. For this reason, an inordinate amount of time throughout the study. The Subcommittee members 2PROWGUE and energy was devoted to examining various included Mary D'Elia, Eileen Jennings, Bill Sansone, Acknowledgments and Format strategies which the community saw as potential Joan Tassiello, Joe Walsh and Bill Wise. Study Process solutions. This is in contrast to the more general Steve Wolf, Chairman of the Clinton Steering Introduction approach usually employed in community planning Committee and Aston Glaves, Chairman of Com­ studies, where direction rather than implementation munity Planning Board #4, contributed generously of 3mSTORY is stressed. their time and ideas. At weekly meetings a subcommittee composed of John Zuccotti, Chairman of the New York City 4 EXISTING CONDmONS ourselves, representatives of the Clinton community, Planning Commission, supported and provided this Land Use the City Planning Commission, the Housing and work with ongoing critiques and encouragement. Traffic and Transportation Development Administration, and the Office of Stanley Newman coordinated the work of c.P.c. staff, Local Economy Midtown Planning and Development, reviewed and who provided technical assistance along with Bill Population discussed all the ideas and information developed Raup and Dorothy Senerchia of the Manhattan Housing during the previous week. Office of City Planning. Community Facilites and Open Space Every proposal that had the slightest hint of Our work was conducted out of an office on the Assemblage potential when applied to one or more of Clinton's 22nd floor of 220 West 42nd Street, the home of the problems was scrutinized. The varied viewpoints of all Office of Midtown Planning and Development. Much 5 CONCLUSIONS AND GOALS these parties including our own legal and economic of the background information was provided by that consultants were brought to bear on each particular office, in addition to contributions at all levels, in­ 6 PROPOSALS strategy. This format provided a rigorous means of cluding the specific planning and urban design Land Use and Zoning screening and evaluating each idea. In order for any proposals. Ted Howard, Michael Kirkland, Dong Yi Traffic and Transportation proposal to come out of this process, it had to meet and especially the secretarial staff worked closely with Local Economy and overcome potential conflicts with a wide. range of us. Population concerns, from present Federal, State, or City policy, Jean Lerman and Ann Myerson of the local H.D.A. Community Facilities and Open Space to legal and economic feasibility, to local political office contributed to the development of housing Potential for Development and environmental considerations. strategies and provided us withloc/lllO' housing in­ formation. 7 EPILOGUE Process vital to ultimate .u~ of product Joan Foley provided liaison with Borough President This process was often time consuming, taxing, and Percy Sutton's office. occasionally frustrating. Nevertheless, it offered the Our sub-consultants were Marilyn Groves, for legal hope that, through this combined effort of the aspects, and Emanuel Tobier for economics. Andrew The Study Process community, the local government, and the Elliott, structural engineer, advised us on con­ professional planner, a workable set of proposals In every planning project there exists a set of struction problems, as did Henry Arnold, landscape would emerge. These proposals were created through procedures, starting with goal setting, problem architect, on open space. study and compromise by all the interested parties, delineation, articulation of priorities, etc., continuing Those contributing to the study from Weiner/Gran and therefore should represent all of their interests. It . included the following: through to the formulation of policies, strategies and implementation actions. The emphasis placed upon is this type of unified support that is essential to the Partner in Charge: Warren W. Gran eventual implementation of any plan. In working with each of these steps depends to a great extent on such Project Planner and Coordinator: Brian T. Sullivan the community and with City officials on an ongoing constraints as time, budget, and manpower. In the Staff: Gary Rogers, Eytan Kaufman, Stuart case of the Clinton Study, there were the additional basis during the actual formation of the plan, we have Markowitz anticipated and resolved many problems and ob­ parameters of ever fluctuating political strategies, Graphics: AJbert Lorenz, Peter Primak; The Main jections that might ordinarily have gone unconfronted monthly revisions of the fate of the Convention Street Graphics Group. until the public hearing stage or Planning Com­ Center, a change of City administration in mid­ mission review. Since, to a large extent, the "lions" The study was funded by a grant to the City stream, and the problem of coordinating the various Planning Department Fund from the Rockefeller private and public bodies which had a role in plan­ have been "bearded" in the planning process, we look Brothers Fund. ning for the area. forward to a rapid and relatively harmonious process The study was produced in this "newspaper" of local and City review, approval and im­ format in an attempt to reach a large number of City & community Involvement plementation. Clinton residents. Much editing of the large amount The comm.unity representatives had for some time While the process described above may have been somewhat impractical within the time constraints of' The second point the COllrt made with respect to comfortable and humane. It is not a fashionable place this particular study, we feel that it has great potential the comprehensive planning requirement is that in which to live, with its mixed commercial, as part of the ongoing two-tiered planning process zoning changes be preceded by thoughtful analysis' manufacturing, and residential uses, but it is far more carried on throughout the City by the 62 local and a full consideration of alternative solutions. convenient and efficient that the "bedroom com- planning boards and the City Planning Commission_ The extensive record of planning within the / munity" syndrome that wastes millions of worker­ Indeed, the implementation ofthis special district will community and Planning Board and with the hours every day on the highways and commuter require a long tenn commitment to this type of multi­ Planning Commission and other City agencies, the ~trains. level cooperation if it is to succeed. discussion of alternatives in the Interim Report of the Furthermore, the planning effort carried out in Consultant, the Board of Estimate'$ adoption of the City committed, to preservation Clinton should be viewed as part of the City-wide Interim District following public hearing by both the In fact, Clinton may be in many ways ahead of its comprehensive planning process. Because there is a Planning Commission and the Board of Estimate, and time rather than obsolete. It has survived long recent leading Court of Appeals pronouncement the series of hearings in the community on the enough to see a rebirth of appreciation of the City's which bears directly on this issue, a separate Preliminary Draft are probably conclusively per­ neighborhoods reshape City policy towards its discussion is in order. In Udell v. Hass, the Court of suasive on this point. neighborhoods. New York City has already taken a Appeals invalidated a series of zoning changes significant step toward affirming the value of Clinton partially on the grounds that the regulations were not and areas like it. In August of 1973 the Planning enacted "in accordance with a comprehensive plan." CommisslOn, pursuant to Executive Order #80, The Court's extensive comments on the com­ Introduction designated five neighborhoods in the City as Neigh­ prehensive planning process means that zoning borhood Preservation Areas. Clinton is one of these changes must relate to plans for the community (city) Clinton· a working class community communities. By this designation, the City let it be as a whole. "While [the] elements [of consistency and Clinton may seem to be in many ways a study in known that it would no longer be content to wait until rationality] are important. the 'comprehensive plan' contrasts. It is a blue-collar community in the midst of its transitional neighborhoods had finally deteriorated requires that the rezoning not conflict with the white-collar