
Pictured above are Councilmember Joel Rivera and Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. at a rally following the council’s vote.
In a rare move, the City Council rejected a proposal from the Bloomberg administration and developer The Related Companies to redevelop a massive armory in the northwest Bronx this morning.
After weeks of debate, the council voted against the proposal, which would have turned the Kingsbridge Armory into a large shopping mall, by a vote of 45 to 1, with one abstention. The project was effectively toppled by a disagreement between the community, the administration and the developer over whether to require the mall’s retailers to pay a living wage, which the community defined as $10 an hour. Today the City Council, led by its Bronx delegation, sided with the community.
For months the subject of a living wage monopolized the discussion over the Kingsbridge Armory. But any living wage settlement would have likely been agreed to in a community benefits agreement, which is not subject to City Council approval. Therefore at its meeting today, council members cited other areas of the developer’s land use application that did fall within their purview, like traffic, as a reason why the proposal was rejected.
“We have been very clear that there were a number of issues, many have been traffic and environmental, germane to the land use process, some separate from the land use process, which often happens in land use negotiations,” said Council Speaker Christine Quinn.
“Obviously none of them were resolved,” said Quinn.
Today was the final day for the council to act on the project. The council has 50 days after a project is approved by the City Planning Commission to either reject or accept it. The armory rejection will now go to the mayor, who is expected to veto it. Quinn said there were enough votes in the City Council to override a mayoral veto.
The project, according to the administration, would have brought thousands of temporary and permanent jobs to the area.
The mayor, who is at the United Nations’ climate change conference in Copenhagen, issued the following response after the council’s vote:
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By Courtney Gross on December 14, 2009, 3:06 pm
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