Food Retail Expansion to Support Health (FRESH) Program

The Food Retail Expansion to Support Health (FRESH) program is designed to facilitate the development of stores selling a full range of food products with an emphasis on fresh fruits and vegetables, meats and other perishable goods. It provides zoning incentives for neighborhood grocery stores to locate in some of the most underserved neighborhoods in the City with primarily pedestrian-oriented, local shopping districts.

CHPC’s Zoning Committee testified and submitted written comments on this program on October 26, 2009, suggesting modifications to provide more of an FAR incentive to potential grocery developers and to provide for ongoing review of the project by the CPC.

Read our comments here (pdf).

Read our testimony here (pdf).

Update: During public review, the City Planning Commission eliminated a requirement that residential stories have a minimum floor-to-ceiling height of 8 feet 6 inches in mixed-use buildings that include a FRESH food store, a change based on CHPC’s recommendation in its submitted comments.

The eliminated requirement would have added 6 inches per story to the 8 foot minimum required under the NYC Building Code, detracting from the additional 15 feet for the maximum building height provided by the FRESH zoning FAR incentive.

On December 9, 2009, the City Council adopted the FRESH text amendment, available here.