BRONX W www.BXTimes.com EEKLY December 23, 2018 6
9-story affordable housing planned for E. 241st Street
BY ALEX MITCHELL
A large-scale afforable housing
rezoning proposal that would
drastically alter Wakefi eld’s landscape
if approved, was recently revealed.
The White Plains Road and East
241st Street rezoning plan would
convert that block’s zoning from
an M1-1, manufacturing zoning district
to an R7D/C2-4 high density,
residential one.
The zoning change request was
submitted by Enclave on 241st LLC,
a development company that plans
to develop a 9-story mixed-use
building on a vacant parcel at 714-
722 E. 241st Street. The ground fl oor
would contain commercial space,
with 186 affordable housing units
spread over fl oors 2 to 9 on the site
of a former Getty gas station.
The project’s total square footage
of 163,394, would be split between
137,422 square feet for
residential space and 25,972 for
commercial space.
In conjunction with the city’s
Mandatory Inclusionary Housing
(MIH) program, the development
would reserve half the units for
tenants earning below 60 percent
of the area median income, with
the balance offered to those at 80-
100 percent AMI.
The Enclave on 241st developers
agreed to fund the rezoning of
the entire block, bounded by White
Plains Road, East 241st Street, Furman
Avenue and East 240th Street,
that includes sites not included
in this project, a deal that pleased
all parties involved, from the city,
right down to Community Board
12.
As for CB12, the zoning change
application was well received by
its board members, as not a single
member voted against the project.
“This is an area without a lot of
housing density and that’s something
we’ve wanted to change,”
said CB12 district manager George
Torres, explaining that the block
would be a prime location for future
large-scale development.
“We’ve been waiting (for a proposal
like) this for a very long time.
Something this community needs
is affordable housing and opening
up 186 units in one location is something
that this board couldn’t be
more in favor of,” he added.
Because this development is an
MIH project, it will not be required
to include a tremendous number
of on-site parking spaces. Since
714-722 E. 241st Street sits next to
the Wakefi eld- 241st Street/White
Plains Road #2 IRT station, public
transportation adequately services
the project and therefore the parking
requirements have been reduced.
Only 20 parking spots will still
be included rather than the standard
40 plus.
The profi tability of the project
was greatly enhanced by the limited
parking requirement. “Not
having to make way for parking
has defi nitely made this project
more feasible moving forward,”
Torres mentioned.
There is one more hurtle to clear
that would make this project and
the others to follow benefi cial to all
Bronxites, and CB 12 is addressing
the matter.
The board is presently petitioning
the MTA to have an elevator installed
at the IRT station to make it
handicap-accessible.
All that’s left to move this project
along is completion of the uniform
land use review process
(ULURP).
Having already passed a NYC
Planning Commission review, said
rezoning is just steps away from being
signed off by the mayor.
Currently no other affordable
developments are planned for this
portion of East 241st Street.
The proposed site for the rezoning. Schneps Community News Group/ Alex Mitchell
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