The city moved dramatically closer yesterday to its goal of remaking the underutilized Far West Side into a blossoming district of office towers, apartment buildings and tree-lined boulevards, when the Planning Commission approved rezoning the 59-block area.
The commission voted 10-1 yesterday to adopt new zoning laws that will pave the way for an extension of the No. 7 subway line and construction of a new mid-block boulevard, both of which would connect to a proposed Jets football stadium.
The Hudson Yards plan, as it is known, will be put up for a vote before the full City Council in January. The council’s Finance Committee will hold hearings next week.
The new zoning plan does not affect city and state plans to build a Jets stadium and convention center atop the MTA rail yards or the expansion of the Javits Convention Center north along 11th Avenue. Both projects are on state land.
The zoning plan includes the area between 28th and 43rd Streets, west of Eighth Avenue – a former manufacturing area that has not been rezoned in more than 40 years.