Western Rail Yard
Chapter 10: Neighborhood Character A. INTRODUCTION Neighborhood character is an amalgam of several elements that give an area its distinctive personality and help distinguish it from other neighborhoods. These components include: land use; street layout; scale, type, and style of development; historic features; patterns and volumes of traffic; noise levels; and any other physical or social characteristics. However, not all of these elements affect neighborhood character in all cases; a neighborhood usually draws its character from a few determining elements. Using information presented in other technical chapters of this EIS, this chapter examines neighborhood character at the three project sites and the associated surrounding study areas, and analyzes the effects of the Proposed Actions on neighborhood character in these areas. PRINCIPAL CONCLUSIONS The Proposed Actions would have a beneficial effect on neighborhood character on the project sites and in the surrounding study areas. Development of Western Rail Yard would fulfill a long- standing public policy to promote productive use of the site with a lively mix of uses, open spaces, and streets that would complement and support the development in the Hudson Yards area and West Chelsea. Construction of permanently affordable housing on the Tenth Avenue and Ninth Avenue Sites would support the Clinton neighborhood by emphasizing its residential character and the mixed-income character of its residents. DEVELOPMENT SITE The Proposed Actions would change the character of the Development Site, and this change would be, on balance, decidedly beneficial. The site, which presents a blank wall to the surrounding neighborhood on two sides and transportation/maintenance uses where it can be seen, would be transformed with a mix of residential and commercial uses and open spaces, clearly visible and accessible to the public.
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