he City Council finally got its one real shot at reshaping the Bloomberg administration's proposal to redevelop the Hudson Yards on the Far West Side of Manhattan, and made it count. Although big pieces of the grand plan - including the dreadful and overpriced football stadium for the Jets - were long ago craftily placed outside its oversight, the Council managed to leverage its considerable power over rezoning.

The result is a better deal on affordable housing, as well as a savings of as much as $1 billion in financing costs. The plan, which Mayor Michael Bloomberg has accepted, demonstrates why still more public review of the administration's vision is needed.

The housing component of the compromise will ensure diversity and is a clear plus. Thanks to pressure from the Council and housing advocates, the administration's original formula for 16 percent in affordable housing was increased to an impressive 28 percent, 3 percent of which would be in existing buildings. When the goals are met, about 3,500 apartments will be reserved for New Yorkers making low, moderate and middle incomes, ranging from well under $50,000 to as much as $104,000 for a family of four. Builders of both rentals and condominiums must agree to include some of these units.

Current residents of the 59-block area will also reap rewards. Christine Quinn, who represents the West Side district in the Council, won a $14 million expansion of Public School 51, which will be needed to accommodate so many new families. Add in the proposed extension of the No. 7 subway line, and the components are falling in place to convert the farthest reaches of the West Side into a thriving neighborhood.

The Bloomberg administration had planned to borrow $4 billion to pay for all the improvements, and to delay payments on the debt until the development could begin producing tax revenue. Council Speaker Gifford Miller and the city comptroller, William Thompson, reasonably objected to that idea, which could have left the city piling up new interest obligations for years. Under the compromise plan, the city will borrow $3 billion and make payments earlier through its operating budget. The effect would be a savings of at least hundreds of millions of dollars.

New Yorkers should be happy that at last some public light has been shed on the West Side project, where plans have been proceeding for years within the Bloomberg administration with very little outside input. But not every part of the agreement was sunny. While commercial density was reduced about 14 percent, to 24 million square feet, that is still more than enough to make 11th Avenue rise like the Rockies, but without the picturesque slopes and peaks. River views would be hidden from the rest of the city.

And while the Council got an administration commitment that there will be no financial connection between the stadium and the rest of the West Side, the rezoning itself could be seen as a victory by stadium backers, who interpret any forward action on the West Side as movement toward their misguided goal.