After three years of back and forth talks, the Jerome Avenue Rezoning Plan was approved, opening the door for the rezoning of 92 blocks of Jerome Avenue, ushering in 4600 units of affordable housing, of which 1500 will be permanently affordable. The rezoning plan is the largest since the 1970s, and can jeopardize the neighborhood’s existing automotive sector.

The plan represents a major win for City Council members Vanessa Gibson and Fernando Cabrera, whose districts cover the area to be rezoned. They believe rezoning will allow current residents to remain in place while adding to the stock of affordable housing.

The Jerome Avenue district will extend from McClellan to 184th streets, impacting the neighborhoods of Highbridge, Concourse, Mount Hope, University Heights and Morris Heights.

“This is an opportunity for the Bronx to get what it has rightfully deserved for decades and decades when no one gave a second glance to the Bronx,” Gibson said minutes ahead of the March 22 vote. “We have not had a major investment like this.”

The city will build two new elementary schools within those communities which are part of school districts 9 and 10. They will create a Southwest Bronx Housing Task Force that will preserve 2500 affordable units in the neighborhood over the next two years, and a preservation program to protect tenants from displacement, sustained by $200,000 for tenant organizing. Because of the city’s Mandatory Inclusionary Housing program, developers who build along the Jerome Avenue corridor will also be required to set aside at least 25 percent of their new units for affordable housing. Ten percent of the developer’s units will go to families earning 40 percent of the area median income, or $34,360 for a family of three.

Talk of Jerome Avenue’s rezoning began in 2015, a year after Mayor Bill de Blasio announced his Housing New York Plan, which sought to build or preserve 200,000 units of affordable housing. The city organized a number of visioning sessions, prompting Cabrera to call the process a “prototype for all future rezoning projects setting high standards for collaboration and community input” in prepared remarks ahead of the vote.

Those opposed to the plan have long said that the new affordable housing will not be as affordable to the existing population and that rezoning will spark gentrification. Community advocates worry that low-income tenants and the numerous immigrant-owned auto shops along Jerome Avenue will be displaced. The Bronx Coalition for a Community Vision, an activist group in favor of low-income housing requirements, attended the council vote. During the proceedings they erupted with chants of “The people, united, will never be defeated!” Video footage of the event reveals impassive faces from council members and even laughter as protesters were cleared from the room.

The city has made some concessions to address the opposition’s concerns. The city’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development is constructing a certificate of no-harassment program, which will require landlords to prove that they have not harassed current or former tenants into moving out of their apartments in the last five years in exchange for a green card. The city Department of Small Business Services will start a training program for auto workers, hire a workforce development coordinator to assist auto-related businesses, and implement $1.5 million in grant money to help businesses that are displaced with relocation costs.

“The plan marks another milestone in the important progress we are making to build a fairer and more affordable New York City,” said Mayor Bill de Blasio.