LESON LOWER EAST SIDE ORGANIZED NEIGHBORS

TO: Marisa Lago, Director

Office of City Planning
120 Broadway, New York, N.Y. 10271
May 25, 2017

CC: Bill de Blasio, Mayor,

Nydia Velasquez, U.S. Congresswoman, 10th District of New York
Gale Brewer, Manhattan Borough President
Margaret Chin, City Council District 1
Carlina Rivera- City Council District 2
Brian Kavanagh, New York State Senate
Yuh-Line Niou, New York State Assembly
Corey Johnson- Chair, City Council
Robert Dobruskin, AICP, Director

We, the undersigned, call on DCP to adopt the Chinatown Working Group rezoning plan in its entirety as the
mitigation strategy for the ongoing Two Bridges LSRD EIS. Furthermore, we call on DCP to convert the current
EIS for the Two Bridges LSRD development to an analysis of the CWG Plan.

It has been demonstrated that the proposed Megatowers cannot meet the requirements necessary to secure
the authorizations and/or special permits under Zoning Resolution Article VII, Chapter 8. Furthermore, the
developments would exacerbate the City's inability to comply with Federal and State water pollution laws,
including the Federal Clean Water Act. The adverse environmental effects of the proposed megatowers cannot
be mitigated without considering the cumulative impact of all the development happening in the surrounding
community. Therefore, it is only reasonable for DCP to adopt the Chinatown Working Group rezoning plan in
its entirety as the mitigation strategy.

The Lower East Side and Chinatown community has long faced a crisis of mass displacement and
gentrification, of which the proposed Megatowers is a prime example of. “Mitigation” of this crisis cannot be
done by rezoning the community piece by piece. Rather, such a proposal, as the history of the East Village
rezoning demonstrates, will leave most of our community unprotected and push development pressures into its
most vulnerable parts, greatly accelerating evictions, rent increases, real estate speculation and development.

DCP once rejected the Chinatown Working Group rezoning plan, claiming that it was too large in scale and too
“ambitious” to implement. In reality, there have been several rezonings passed within the last decade that are
much larger in scale and more ambitious than our own. These rezonings, which were predominantly
downzonings, include: Ozone Park- 530 blocks, Richmond Hill-Kew Gardens- 140 blocks, Richmond Hill-
Woodhaven- 229 blocks. Our request that the plan be passed is a call for equality: that our community,
predominantly low-income and people of color, be afforded the same treatment as these communities, which
majority are wealthy.

We remind DCP that the Chinatown Working Group plan was crafted over the past 8 years with overwhelming
community participation and support. Almost 60 groups participated in its creation. Thousands in the
community have signed petitions and marched to City Hall calling for the passage of the plan in its entirety.
LESON LOWER EAST SIDE ORGANIZED NEIGHBORS

We call on DCP:
1. Adopt the CWG plan in its entirety
2. Convert the current Two Bridges LSRD EIS to an analysis for the Chinatown Working Group plan
3. Comply with the LSRD Zoning Resolution Article VII, Chapter 8 and stop the megatowers from being
built

Please contact Tony Queylin at 1-917-613-9226 or lesorganizedneighbors@gmail.com to discuss this matter

further.

Lower East Side Organized Neighbors

Tanya Castro-Negron, Land’s End II Resident Association
David Nieves, Seward Park Ext. & National Mobilization Against Sweatshops
Tony Queylin, Two Bridges Tower & National Mobilization Against Sweatshops
Zishun Ning, Chinese Staff and Workers’ Association
David Tieu, Chinese Staff and Workers’ Association
Richard Yuen, LES resident