Pratt Center for Community Development

Planning, Building, & Educating for Change.

Zoning for Jobs

The Pratt Center is collaborating with the New York Industrial Retention Network and the Municipal Art Society on a policy report and advocacy effort to establish new zoning districts that would help to preserve viable manufacturing jobs in New York City:

  • "industrial employment districts" to better protect industrial uses and provide spaces where manufacturing can thrive; and
  • "balanced mixed-use districts" to provide for mixed-use areas that preserve manufacturing that is compatible with nearby residences.
We are working with local groups seeking to establish such districts in areas such as Long Island City and Greenpoint-Williamsburg.

Manufacturing Land Use and Zoning Initiative
In 2001, the Pratt Center and the Municipal Art Society (MAS) released "Making it in New York," a major Land Use and Zoning Study of New York's Manufacturing Areas. In a unique and precedent setting action, community-based organizations, manufacturers and manufacturing advocates, environmental justice organizations and real estate professionals, trade associations and unions joined forces with MAS and the Pratt Center to put forth a comprehensive set of land use and zoning recommendations. The recommendations are based on the most exhaustive study of manufacturing areas of New York City in over a decade. The groups comprising this emerging coalition are calling for a sweeping reform of the City's zoning, land use, and program initiatives that affect manufacturing zones. The recommendations link economic development and job creation and retention objectives with environmental health and justice objectives.