The trend in New York City real estate development is unquestionably upward.

But residents in the Woodlawn Heights section of the Bronx have orchestrated a reversal.

Woodlawn Heights is an outlier, a hilly neighborhood of one- and two-family homes along the city’s northern line, surrounded by Van Cortlandt Park, the fences of Woodlawn Cemetery, and a bustling Webster Avenue corridor.  The bulk of Woodlawn Heights (except along the cemetery and Webster Avenue) is zoned R4A, allowing only suburban-style homes.  For years, three local homeowners groups have been working closely with local legislators and the community board to maintain the neighborhood’s low-key visage.

Their efforts bore fruit on April 20, when the New York City Council passed a downzoning amendment, the city’s first in two and a half years, that belts all high-rise development tightly along the existing towers on the Webster Avenue corridor.

The area affected is bounded by East 240th Street to the north, East 234th Street to the south, Vireo Avenue to the west and Webster Avenue to the east. This section will now be designated an R4A district, shifting from an R7A District, a designation allowing multiple dwellings as high as eight stories to be built among detached private homes. Before the amendment passed, 19 lots were either zoned R7A or were split between R7A and R4A districts.

Councilman Andrew Cohen praised the community groups that approached him to request the zoning change, concerned about an out of character building being constructed on East 236th Street between Webster and Vireo avenues.

“The downzoning of Woodlawn will stop the destruction of the single family homes that currently gives the neighborhood its intrinsic character, as well as prevent high-rise developments from invading its narrow streets,” said Cohen. “This is something that the residents of Woodlawn have been in support of for quite some time and I am proud to have been able to make it a reality. I would like to thank Community Board 12, the Women of Woodlawn, the Woodlawn Taxpayers Association and the Webster Avenue Taxpayers Association for their backing on this issue.”

“This zoning amendment…will maintain the current character of our neighborhood, and prohibit large, multi-family dwellings from being built on our quiet residential streets,” said Kenneth Nugent, president of the Woodlawn Taxpayers Association. His comments were echoed by Erin Lee, president of Women of Woodlawn, and Jeremy Skehan, president of the Webster Avenue Taxpayers Association.

George Torres, district manager of Community Board 12, which covers Woodlawn Heights, credited “careful planning” on the part of community stakeholders to “help preserve what makes Woodlawn a vibrant and close-knit neighborhood.”

Editor’s Note: The print version of this article erroneously states Erin Lee’s last name. 

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Welcome to the Norwood News, a bi-weekly community newspaper that primarily serves the northwest Bronx communities of Norwood, Bedford Park, Fordham and University Heights. Through our Breaking Bronx blog, we focus on news and information for those neighborhoods, but aim to cover as much Bronx-related news as possible. Founded in 1988 by Mosholu Preservation Corporation, a not-for-profit affiliate of Montefiore Medical Center, the Norwood News began as a monthly and grew to a bi-weekly in 1994. In September 2003 the paper expanded to cover University Heights and now covers all the neighborhoods of Community District 7. The Norwood News exists to foster communication among citizens and organizations and to be a tool for neighborhood development efforts. The Norwood News runs the Bronx Youth Journalism Heard, a journalism training program for Bronx high school students. As you navigate this website, please let us know if you discover any glitches or if you have any suggestions. We’d love to hear from you. You can send e-mails to norwoodnews@norwoodnews.org or call us anytime (718) 324-4998.