Sorry, NIMBYs: Your opposition to New York housing creation has just been drowned out by a resounding $5 billion of “Yes.”
A City Council subcommittee on Thursday approved Mayor Eric Adams’ plan to build 80,000 new homes over the next 15 years, lowering the cost of rent for New Yorkers amid one of the worst housing crises in city history. Dubbed “City of Yes for Housing Opportunity,” the rezoning proposal aims to spur the creation of affordable housing in all five boroughs, along with upgrades to critical infrastructure. The approval by the City Council Subcommittee on Zoning and Franchises and Committee on Land Use was secured following a $5 billion pledge from the city and state.
According to the city, the proposal exceeds the housing creation total of all rezonings pushed out by the administrations of Michael Bloomberg and Bill de Blasio.
“Thanks to our shared commitment in building critically needed housing, we have reached an agreement on a historic plan that could open the doors to a little more housing in every neighborhood in our city,” Adams said in a statement on Thursday. “If passed, New York City will once again serve as a model to the nation on government’s infinite ability to take challenges head on, set forth a bold agenda, and get the job done.”
The plan, first announced in April, originally sought to facilitate more than 100,000 new housing units. It also included provisions for lifting the parking space requirement for new residential construction, which developers claim adds an undue cost burden, and for unrestricting property owners’ ability to create accessory dwelling units in spaces like basements, attics, and garages.
Thursday’s amended proposal involved concessions on all three points. Rather than dropping the parking requirement wholesale, it will instead divide it into three zones, preserving the mandate in boroughs like Staten Island and Queens where local lawmakers deemed it necessary. Further, accessory dwelling creation will remain restricted in many areas, particularly in historic districts and flood zones, but will be permitted in transit-proximate areas.
Despite the more than 20-percent reduction in its overall housing creation goal, the plan nevertheless marks the most significant improvement to the city’s zoning structure since 1961 and is poised to deliver much-needed breathing room to a rental market stifled by a razor-thin 1.4 percent vacancy rate.
Council members’ support for the proposal hinged on the provision of $4 billion from the Adams administration and the last-minute pledge by Governor Kathy Hochul to earmark another $1 billion of state funds from the 2025 budget, according to a report by Bloomberg.
“New York has a housing affordability crisis and there’s only one way out: build more housing,” Hochul said in a statement. “Now, we’re adding a $1 billion state commitment to support affordable housing in New York City. We need all hands on deck to build more housing and make New York more affordable for all of us.”
The Adams administration’s share of the contributions includes $1 billion for housing capital, $2 billion for infrastructure projects, and $1 billion in expense funding to cover tenant protection, voucher assistance, neighborhood planning, and more. If approved in the state budget, Governor Hochul’s commitment will provide $1 billion in housing capital over the next five years.
Following this week’s approval, the proposal will now go to a vote before the full City Council in December.
No comments:
Post a Comment