Upper Manhattan residents and community leaders expressed their concerns this week about how a government-led river-to-river development plan for 125th Street may affect rents and historic buildings in the zone, particularly in the heart of Harlem.

The Department of City Planning has not yet presented a specific plan detailing its intentions for the area. City Planning Commission Chair Amanda Burden, indicated that the details will most likely be presented in the fall, after more meetings have taken place in upper Manhattan with community leaders and residents of neighborhoods, including "El Barrio” to the east, West Harlem, and the area north of Columbia University.

According to Burden, 125th Street “is one of the most famous streets in the world, and it should be reaching its full potential.”

The Department indicated that one of the problems in the area is commercial development has gone forward while other types of development has lagged. For example, many buildings have businesses on their first floor, while upper floors are vacant with windows boarded over.

The opening of a Pathmark supermarket on the corner of 125th Street and Lexington Avenue, credited for helping promote other businesses in the neighborhood, caused some controversy with the Department of Planning, which considers it a bad use of space since the supermarket could have had a second floor used for other purposes.

In a meeting last Tuesday in the Latin American Pentecostal Church on Park Avenue, many participants expressed their concern that this historic zone may lose its character.

“Do you know why people go to Europe? Because they can see history there,” said Isis Ausaf, who attended the meeting. “People don’t come to Harlem to see another Modell’s [a department store]. People come to Harlem to see what they can’t see in downtown Manhattan,” she added.

“I would hate for Harlem to become like the rest of Manhattan below 96th Street,” added Daniel Pérez, another neighbor who participated in the discussion.

Ausaf noted that it is important to take into account how the plan will affect rents. He said that paying “$3,000 in rent when you’re only earning a few pennies” is an untenable situation for neighborhood residents. In several areas of the city, the Planning Department has faced criticism for development plans and zoning that do not include stipulations to limit rents.

Not all comments were negative, however.

According to Carlos Vargas Ramos, a member of the community board in Harlem, the city proposal “could be an element of more organized development in Harlem and in the rest of the city.” He noted that the area is exposed to “a lot of developers that want to take advantage of existing conditions.”

Ramos referred to the proposed construction of a hotel on 125th Street and Park Avenue as an example of uncontrolled development; while admitting that the building may be “designed nicely, a 40-floor building in the neighborhood is a crime.”

Faced with such situations, the creation of a development plan could serve as a guide for the use of the few available public areas left in the neighborhood, he said.