Neighborhood groups, developers and urban planners have converged on Chinatown in what will likely be the next major rezoning battle in downtown Manhattan.

The Chinatown Working Group is scheduled to submit data for the rezoning by October, and the organization is soliciting feedback from local residents, landlords and Community Boards 1, 2 and 3.

These findings will form the basis of a 197-a Plan — a community-submitted effort that must be sponsored by either a community board or local elected official — before entering a formal land-use review lasting over a year. The changes could take the form of the creation of a special zoning district or even a historic district, which would be subject to approval by the city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission.

But getting there will be a challenge, as Chinatown is rife with racial and economic tensions, with groups that have very different visions of what future zoning should entail.

Two preliminary rezoning ideas have been drafted, one by a coalition of local residents and advocacy groups and another by developers, as well as three targeted plans that focus on smaller areas.

Developers want to push for higher density zoning, particularly along Canal Street, which they have said would give an economic boost to the area.

"I think that the zoning change makes a lot of sense. Without the ability to redevelop to a reasonable density there, there’s not going to be the vitality to the main commercial corridor," said Keith Lipstein, a managing director at ABS Real Estate, and a representative of a one-story retail building at the southeast corner of Canal Street and Lafayette Street.

"We’re in favor of seeing the maximum zoning that is reasonable for that location."

But Douglas Woodward, the developers’ planning consultant, stresses that an actual plan is not finalized, and much more information needs to be gathered, and downplayed the idea of pushing for maximum density.

"We’re doing a study right now to analyze the planning conditions," he said. "We haven’t really reached any conclusion yet. We agree that there needs to be some targeted upzoning."

Local groups are against increasing density, and they favor decreasing density in many areas. They argue that this would preserve affordable housing and local businesses, while also warding off non-contextual luxury development.

"The coalition’s plan is focused on maintaining and preserving lower income housing in the neighborhood." said Bethany Li, an equal justice works fellow at the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund, one of the authors of the community rezoning plan. "It’s also, at this point, the most comprehensive plan out there."

Brian Paul, a research and policy fellow at the Hunter College Center for Community Planning and Development, who is involved with the community plan, said that new zoning will better reflect the character of Chinatown.

"What we’re calling for is a conceptual rezoning. The majority of the city’s rezoning have been contextual rezoning — changing zoning codes that are out of date," said Paul.

A similar process occurred with the rezoning of the East Village and Lower East Side in 2008, which created height restrictions for buildings. Some Chinatown residents argued that the East Village rezoning left them out in the cold, inviting developers to move to Chinatown, which has fewer height restrictions and is easier to develop. They believed that this would accelerate gentrification in the area, and went as far as to call the rezoning "racist." This outrage was partially responsible for the genesis of the Chinatown Working Group, which was created to assess zoning changes that should be made in the area.

"You have a group that’s learned, that’s watched what’s happened further up in the East Village and Williamsburg and doesn’t want what happened in that community," said Paul. "It wants something different." The last few years have seen a spurt of luxury developments in Chinatown, reinforcing residents’ notions that the area is becoming gentrified.

"That’s what you call a fact, an empirical fact. You predicted it and it happened," said Rob Hollander, a member of the Chinatown Working Group, referring to the idea of Chinatown gentrification following the East Village rezoning.

One of the most controversial projects was the Wyndham Garden hotel at 93 Bowery, at the corner of Hester Street. At 18 stories, the hotel, which is still under construction, is much higher than neighboring buildings, and local residents blamed the construction for damaging the infrastructure at a nearby six-story tenement at 128 Hester Street. The city deemed the building unsafe last August, ordered its 60 residents to move out and began demolition of the building in October.

"The developers just want to push a plan for profits," said Josephine Lee, spokeswoman for Coalition to Protect Chinatown and the Lower East Side, which supports downzoning parts of Chinatown. "Housing is being demolished to make room for huge luxury high-rises."

Last week, the state found hotel developer William Su, who is also the owner of 128 Hester Street, responsible for neglecting the tenement and causing the unsafe conditions. He was ordered to pay up to $900,000 to the tenants in relocation fees.

Further controversy has erupted over the boundaries of Chinatown. While residents said their rezoning plan is more comprehensive than the developers’ plan, they face resistance from residents of Soho and the East Village, who think the rezoning plans violate neighborhood boundaries.

The Soho Alliance, led by Sean Sweeney, has said that rezoning plans encroach on Soho in the north of Chinatown, and wants no part of the rezoning.

A separate effort to create a Chinatown Business Improvement District, an organization that would collect money from landlords to fund street cleaning, maintenance, and marketing the neighborhood to retailers and investors, has also led to border tensions. The Soho Alliance said that the proposed BID unfairly incorporates parts of Soho, which would have to pay the BID, into Chinatown. According to the Wall Street Journal, in the face of criticism the BID effort recently shrank its borders, but Soho activists are still not satisfied.

Meanwhile, to the northeast, Chinatown residents want to incorporate into the rezoning the Seward Park Urban Renewal Area, known as SPURA, composed of undeveloped, city-owned plots of land on Delancey Street that have been dormant for 40 years. They also wants to incorporate parts of the East Village that were already rezoned in 2008. Opponents have said that both areas are outside of Chinatown’s scope.

"There’s so many groups there with diverse interests and needs — some people want this and some people want that. It’s very hard for there to be a unifying force and make things happen," added Lipstein, one of the local developers. "It’s something that needs to be done. Chinatown now is like a ship without a rudder."