WATCH: Mayor Adams Celebrate Historic Housing Milestone For New York City
New York City Mayor Eric Adams, New York State Governor Kathy Hochul, New York City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams and New York City Department of City Planning (DCP) Director and City Planning Commission (CPC) Chair Dan Garodnick today celebrated the passage of “City of Yes for Housing Opportunity,” the most pro-housing zoning proposal in New York City history. As the city confronts a generational housing crisis with a 1.4 percent rental vacancy rate, the citywide rezoning will enable the creation of 80,000 new homes over the next 15 years and invest $5 billion towards critical infrastructure updates and housing. The City of Yes proposal alone exceeds all the housing created from rezonings during any mayoral administration of the last 50 years, including all of the 12 years of the Bloomberg administration and all eight years of the de Blasio administration.
“Today is a historic day in New York City, but, more importantly, for working-class New Yorkers. We showed the nation that government can still be bold and brave by passing the most pro-housing piece of legislation in city history. Our administration proposed and fought hard for this proposal for more than year, and now New Yorkers are the ones who will benefit from lower rent,” said Mayor Adams. “I want to thank everyone who worked so hard to come together and collaborate on this landmark legislation, especially City Council Speaker Adams and Governor Hochul, the City Hall and agency teams that kept this plan moving forward no matter what, the advocates who knew we had to get this done, and everyday New Yorkers who made their voices heard. A home is more than just four walls and a roof. It’s the key to unlocking the American Dream, a path towards stability, and an opportunity that’s been out of grasp for too many for too long. City of Yes will forever change the course of our city’s history by bringing that dream closer to reality for New Yorkers — and it all started by saying ‘yes.’”
“Our only shot at solving New York’s affordability crisis is by building more housing — and that’s why I’m committing $1 billion for projects that will make ‘City of Yes’ a reality,” said Governor Hochul. “I signed the most powerful pro-housing legislation in three generations earlier this year, but the work is far from over. That’s why it’s critical for New York City to move forward with zoning reforms that will create more of the homes New Yorkers so desperately need.”
“Today, the Council made historic strides to create more homes and make our city more affordable by approving the modified Zoning for Housing Opportunity text amendment with $5 billion of major investments in our City for All housing plan,” said Speaker Adams. “By taking a major step to address the housing shortage, while supporting existing homeowners and tenants, making housing more affordable, expanding homeownership opportunities, and strengthening the infrastructure of neighborhoods, we are advancing a safer and stronger city. This shows that our city can ensure every area helps contribute to confronting the housing crisis by creating more housing, while respecting the differences of neighborhoods across the five boroughs and investing in New Yorkers.”
“In the face of our long-standing housing crisis, the greatest city in the world has just passed the most pro-housing legislation in our history. ‘City of Yes for Housing Opportunity’ marks the start of a new era of affordability and access for everyday New Yorkers,” said First Deputy Mayor Maria Torres-Springer. “Thank you to Mayor Eric Adams, Speaker Adrienne Adams, Governor Kathy Hochul, and the diverse and tireless coalition of community advocates, faith leaders, labor leaders, and public servants who brought ‘City of Yes’ to fruition.”
“New York City’s housing crisis has persisted for so long that many assume high rents, scarce housing, and landlords holding all the cards are just a fact of life. But these outcomes are the result of policy choices, and today, we are officially choosing a new path. These critical changes in our zoning rules will help tackle our housing shortage and create the homes New Yorkers need, all while avoiding significant changes in any one area,” said CPC Chair and DCP Director Dan Garodnick. “Thank you to the City Council, labor, faith leaders, advocates, and everyday New Yorkers for supporting this initiative to build a more affordable future, with housing opportunity in every neighborhood.”
Highlights of the historic City of Yes agreement include:
- Creating the Universal Affordability Preference (UAP), allowing roughly 20 percent more housing in medium- and high-density developments, as long as the additional homes are permanently affordable. If UAP had been in place since 2014, an additional 20,000 income-restricted homes could have been created.
- Legalizing small accessory dwelling units (ADU) for one- and two-family homes, with some restrictions in limited areas to address concerns around flooding and neighborhood context. These small homes, which include backyard cottages and converted garages, can give homeowners extra income and allow families to age in place.
- Permitting transit-oriented development and Town Center zoning, to create three-, four-, and five-story apartment buildings near most transit and along commercial corridors, respectively, with an affordability incentive for projects with more than roughly 50 homes.
- Allowing height-limited, contextual development on large campuses or lots, including those owned by faith-based organizations, that previously could not use their existing development rights because of outdated and conflicting rules.
- Rolling back parking mandates for new residential construction through a three-zone system that lifts them entirely in Zone 1, reduces them in Zone 2, and keeps them in place in Zone 3. Zone 1 will be the most populous parking mandate-free area in the U.S. — nearly triple the population of Austin, the largest U.S. city to lift parking mandates.
- Enacting new high-density zoning districts that would allow more housing, including mandatory affordable housing in high-demand central areas where it is urgently needed.
- Re-legalizing small and shared housing models with common facilities like kitchens.
- Making it easier to convert offices and other non-residential buildings into housing.
City of Yes for Housing Opportunity invests $5 billion towards the city’s housing and critical infrastructure updates. Mayor Adams is committing $1 billion for housing capital. He is also investing $2 billion in infrastructure projects — to be reflected in upcoming financial plans — that will support investments in sewer and flood infrastructure, street improvements, and open space. Finally, Mayor Adams will spend $1 billion in expense funding over 10 years in tenant protection, voucher assistance and combatting source-of-income discrimination, flood monitoring, and neighborhood planning. Additionally, thanks to her strong leadership and shared commitment to building housing, Governor Hochul is committing another $1 billion to housing capital over the next five years, subject to state budget approval.
The passage of City of Yes for Housing Opportunity follows an extensive public review process, including over 175 Community Board meetings, 10 public information sessions, a CPC hearing in which a majority of speakers testified in favor of the proposal, and more. The proposal also received favorable recommendations from Bronx Borough President Vanessa Gibson, Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso, Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine, and Queens Borough President Donovan Richards.
Mayor Adams and Speaker Adams have made historic investments toward creating affordable housing over the last three years. In June, City Hall and the City Council agreed on an on-time, balanced, and fiscally-responsible $112.4 billion Fiscal Year (FY) 2025 Adopted Budget that invests $2 billion in capital funds across FY25 and FY26 to the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development and the New York City Housing Authority’s capital budgets. In total, the Adams administration has committed a record $26 billion in housing capital in the current 10-year plan as the city faces a generational housing crisis. In July, Mayor Adams announced back-to-back record breaking years in both creating and connecting New Yorkers to affordable housing. This past spring, the city celebrated the largest 100 percent affordable housing project in 40 years with the Willets Point transformation.
Further, the Adams administration is using every tool available to address the city’s housing crisis. Mayor Adams announced multiple new tools, including a $4 million state grant, to help New York City homeowners create ADUs that will not only help them to afford to remain in the communities they call home, but also to build generational wealth for families.
Earlier this year, Mayor Adams and members of his administration successfully advocated for new tools in the 2024 New York state budget that will spur the creation of urgently needed housing. These tools include a new tax incentive for multifamily rental construction, a tax incentive program to encourage office conversions to create more affordable units, lifting the arbitrary “floor-to-area ratio” cap that held back affordable housing production in certain high-demand areas of the city, and the ability to create a pilot program to legalize and make safe basement apartments.
Under Mayor Adams’ leadership, the city is fulfilling its 2024 State of the City commitment to build more affordable housing, including by being ahead of schedule on advancing two dozen affordable housing projects on city-owned land this year through the “24 in ‘24” initiative, reopening the Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher program waitlist after being closed to general applications for nearly 15 years, and creating the Tenant Protection Cabinet to coordinate across agencies to better serve tenants. The city has also taken several steps to cut red tape and speed up the delivery of much-needed housing, including through the “Green Fast Track for Housing,” a streamlined environmental review process for qualifying small- and medium-sized housing projects; the “Office Conversion Accelerator,” an interagency effort to guide buildings that wish to convert through city bureaucracy; and other initiatives of the Building and Land Use Approval Streamlining Taskforce.
No comments:
Post a Comment