The New York Department of City Planning is considering changes to a formula used to model the shadows cast by potential developments as part of its Midtown East rezoning plan.
"The rezoning plan the city is seeking for Midtown East could eventually make streets in the district 10% darker," reports Daniel Geiger.
According to Geiger, planners in New York know that highly specific piece of information because of "an obscure formula known as the Waldram diagram, which is used by developers to calculate how much daylight a new building will block out…" The newsworthiness of the Waldram findings for Midtown East rezoning is compounded by the revelation that the Waldram formula is being "relaxed as part of the rezoning, allowing for taller and bulkier spires in the neighborhood."
"To encourage development, the Midtown East rezoning plan will allow towers to be built that are more than 40% bigger than the existing buildings in the district and also keep more of their bulk as they rise, in turn eclipsing more of the sky," explains Geiger. "Relaxing the Waldram formula is a key part of the plan, but has received little attention."
FULL STORY: A plan to rezone could make parts of Midtown East 10% darker
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City of Albany
UCLA Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies
Mpact (formerly Rail~Volution)
Chaddick Institute at DePaul University
City of Piedmont, CA
Great Falls Development Authority, Inc.
HUDs Office of Policy Development and Research