Plan Includes $235 Million in Community Investments, Infrastructure Upgrades, and Open Space
New Housing Will Include Approximately 1,900 Income-Restricted Affordable Units
Atlantic Avenue is Second Neighborhood Plan from Adams Administration to Pass, On Track to Pass All Five by End of 2025, All Five Plans Could Create Up to 50,000 Homes Over Next 15 Years
New York City Mayor Eric Adams and New York City Department of City Planning (DCP) Director and City Planning Commission (CPC) Chair Dan Garodnick today celebrated the New York City Council’s approval of the Atlantic Avenue Mixed-Use Plan, the second DCP-led neighborhood plan approved under the Adams administration. The plan will bring approximately 4,600 homes — including 1,900 income-restricted, affordable homes — and 2,800 permanent jobs to the Atlantic Avenue corridor near Crown Heights and Bedford-Stuyvesant, where outdated zoning rules have long limited housing and job growth. The plan also includes approximately $235 million in investments from the Adams administration to improve open space and traffic safety, bolster tenant protections, and enhance other neighborhood infrastructure and amenities. If all five neighborhood plans proposed by the Adams administration are adopted, they will deliver more than 50,000 housing units to New Yorkers over the next 15 years.
“The Atlantic Avenue Mixed-Use Plan marks a major milestone in our mission to build a more affordable, vibrant New York City, and today marks an excited victory for Central Brooklyn as we take the next steps towards building more housing and creating more jobs in the five boroughs,” said Mayor Adams. “By advancing this plan, we’re not just creating homes — we’re investing in jobs, streets, and parks that strengthen our city. Our administration is grateful to the City Council and Chairs Riley and Salamanca for passing our ambitious plan and for their shared commitment to creating more homes for New Yorkers while still addressing community needs. This is what the ‘City of Yes for Housing Opportunity’ is all about: bold, forward-looking action that meets the needs of New Yorkers, today and for generations to come.”
“With today’s passage of this administration’s Atlantic Avenue neighborhood rezoning plan, we are once again delivering on our promise to New York’s working-class families to improve neighborhoods and provide more affordable housing, more jobs, and a safer city,” said First Deputy Mayor Randy Mastro. “I was pleased to work so constructively with the local councilmembers here to get to ‘yes,’ and look forward to continuing to advance more neighborhood rezoning initiatives in the months ahead.”
“After over a decade of advocacy from the community to address this neighborhood’s outdated zoning and underinvestment, our administration has delivered,” said Deputy Mayor for Housing, Economic Development, and Workforce Adolfo Carrión, Jr. “With thousands of new homes and jobs alongside hundreds of millions of dollars in infrastructure investments, the city’s partnership with the community will revitalize this critical corridor and bear fruit for decades to come. I would like to extend an enormous thanks to the team at the Department of City Planning, as well as Councilmembers Hudson and Ossé for their years of work to achieve this victory for Central Brooklyn.”
“Today’s approval marks the beginning of a new chapter for Atlantic Avenue. With updated zoning and smart investments, the corridor will offer more of the homes, jobs, safe streets, and open space that Brooklynites urgently need,” said DCP Director Garodnick. “I am grateful to Mayor Adams for his leadership on this crucial issue, as well as Speaker Adams, Chairs Salamanca and Riley, Councilmembers Hudson and Ossé, and the entire City Council for supporting this transformative plan to make Central Brooklyn a more affordable, dynamic, and welcoming place to live and work.”
“I am thrilled that AAMUP — designed and developed in close partnership between the local communities, councilmembers, and our administration — has officially been approved by the City Council,” said Executive Director for Housing Leila Bozorg. “Neighborhood plans like AAMUP are a cornerstone of our effort to fight the affordable housing shortage in New York, and this one will deliver 4,600 new homes, including 1,900 permanently affordable homes, for Central Brooklyn. I’d like to thank Councilmembers Hudson and Ossé for their steadfast leadership, as well as the departments of City Planning, Housing Preservation and Development, Transportation, and Parks and Recreation, for bringing such an ambitious vision to reality.”
“New Yorkers know how dire the housing crisis is — and so do we,” said New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) Acting Commissioner Ahmed Tigani. “That’s why we’re acting with such urgency: working to build more homes, planning for safer, more sustainable neighborhoods, and investing in ensuring that every New Yorker has a safe, affordable place to call home. Today’s announcement builds on our progress and brings to fruition a long-debated, carefully considered neighborhood plan which will provide desperately needed housing to working Brooklynites — centered on one of the most dynamic avenues in the borough. I want to extend my sincere congratulations to our own Neighborhood Strategies staff; Brooklyn Community Boards 3 and 8; Borough President Reynoso; Councilmembers Hudson and Ossé; the Department of City Planning; Executive Director Bozorg; Deputy Mayor Carrión; and Mayor Adams. I am grateful to all who had a role in shaping the vision to make the Atlantic Avenue Plan a reality. Let’s get it done.”
A New Atlantic Avenue
The newly adopted zoning map in the Atlantic Ave Mixed-Use Plan project area. Credit: DCP.
The Atlantic Avenue Mixed-Use Plan will revitalize a roughly 21-block stretch of Atlantic Avenue and neighboring streets between Vanderbilt Avenue and Nostrand Avenue. Since the 1960s, this area’s zoning has largely banned new housing, allowing only one-to-two story industrial buildings and storage facilities, despite its proximity to job hubs and transit, and the city’s deep housing shortage.
With the City Council’s approval, the area is poised to become a more vibrant, mixed-use neighborhood with new housing — including permanently income-restricted affordable homes through Mandatory Inclusionary Housing, which requires new developments to include permanently affordable housing. The plan will also deliver 800,000 square feet of space for ground floor retail, commercial uses and manufacturing businesses, and community facilities. On neighboring avenues and streets, updated zoning will allow for moderately-sized mixed-use buildings with income-restricted affordable housing and job-generating uses.
A More Affordable, Prosperous Atlantic Avenue
In addition to the over 1,000 permanently affordable homes that will be built through Mandatory Inclusionary Housing, around 900 income-restricted affordable homes will be built on city, state, and nonprofit-owned sites across the neighborhood, including at 457 Nostrand Avenue, 542 Dean Street, 516 Bergen Street, 1110 Atlantic Avenue, 1024 Fulton Street, and 1134-1142 Pacific Street. Developed through programs run by HPD and state funding, these buildings will include units reserved for older, low-income households, families, and formerly homeless New Yorkers.
To support existing affordable housing, HPD’s Partners in Preservation program will provide nearly $3 million to community-based groups focused on anti-harassment and anti-displacement work. HPD will also hold a series of housing resources workshops this summer to assist tenants and homeowners with their needs.
The plan will additionally help businesses and connect local residents to jobs, including job training and apprenticeship programs, hiring halls for jobseekers, and other services supporting existing and future businesses. Further, funding will be allocated to study future uses at the Bedford-Atlantic Armory to assess more opportunities for economic and workforce development.
A Safer, Greener Atlantic Avenue
The Atlantic Avenue plan includes several measures to protect
pedestrians and expand green space in the neighborhood. Credit: DCP.
To help make Atlantic Avenue safer for all, the city will advance several street safety measures, including a $135 million capital commitment for a comprehensive redesign of Atlantic Avenue. Additional, more immediate improvements include painted “neckdowns,” or raised curb extensions that narrow the travel lane at intersections or midblock locations; daylighting to improve visibility at intersections; and bike corrals and a new bike lane on Bedford Avenue. On both Atlantic Avenue and Bedford Avenue, new buildings must now be set back further back from the street, creating wider sidewalks and reducing pedestrian congestion.
The Atlantic Avenue Mixed-Use Plan also commits a nearly $100 million investment in open space. Multiple public spaces throughout the neighborhood will receive much-needed improvements, including Hancock Playground, Potomac Playground, Dean Playground, James Forten Playground, the PS 93 school yard, and Lefferts Place Community Garden.
The city has also allocated an initial investment of $24.2 million to improve St. Andrew’s Playground with a new, synthetic turf, multi-use field featuring a running track, upgraded basketball and handball courts, renovated playgrounds, a remodeled public restroom, new seating, plantings, and other green infrastructure. Lowry Triangle, located near Atlantic Avenue and Washington Avenue, will also be enhanced to become a more vibrant community public space. The plan expands a zoning incentive for buildings that will encourage the creation of publicly accessible open space along Atlantic Avenue as well.
The plan will create a better experience for commuters through enhancements to the Franklin Avenue subway station, which serves the A and C trains. The station will receive several beautification measures, including a new paint job, a public art installation, and general sanitary improvements.
To better protect the area from flooding, the city is advancing upgraded storm water and sewer infrastructure in tandem with major street and open space improvements, such as the installation of subsurface stormwater detention systems, while continuing improvements already underway, including 140 rain gardens throughout the neighborhood. New buildings will also be required to meet the New York City Department of Environmental Protection’s stormwater standards. Together, these measures will increase sewer capacity, greatly reduce flooding, and help the neighborhood better handle and recover from storm events.
A Community-Focused Atlantic Avenue
Today’s approval is the culmination of extensive collaboration between DCP, Brooklyn Community Board 8, and local stakeholders to create a more dynamic, mixed-use Atlantic Avenue. The process for the Atlantic Avenue Mixed-Use Plan kicked off in early 2023 with City Councilmembers Crystal Hudson and Chi Ossé, engagement facilitator WXY Studio, Community Boards 2, 3, and 8, and agency partners. The process included over 20 meetings: three public community planning workshops, nine public working group meetings on three topic areas, and nine steering committee meetings to help shape the plan, which culminated in the release of the Community Vision and Priorities Report in 2023.
During the formal public review process, the plan received favorable recommendations with conditions from Brooklyn Community Boards 3 and 8 and Brooklyn Borough President Reynoso, as well as a positive vote at the CPC.
The Adams Administration’s Record on Housing
Even with an impressive track record, where his administration has broken multiple records over the last three years, this year, Mayor Adams has gone even further to double down on his commitment to building more affordable housing across the five boroughs. Earlier this year, Mayor Adams and the New York City Economic Development Corporation announced the next phase of an ambitious, bold new vision for Coney Island in Brooklyn that will deliver 1,500 new homes and invest in the reconstruction of the historic Riegelmann Boardwalk. Additionally, Mayor Adams and HPD celebrated a $82 million investment to put homeownership within reach for more New Yorkers by expanding the HomeFirst Down Payment Assistance Program. Finally, the Adams administration has advanced several bold, forward-looking projects, including reimagining Gansevoort Square to build mixed-income housing, building 100 percent affordable housing at the Grand Concourse Library in the Bronx, advancing the 388 Hudson development in Manhattan to provide hundreds of critically-needed affordable housing units, moving forward on a MTA proposal to transform a long-vacant lot in East Harlem into a mixed-use tower with nearly 700 new homes, and kicking off public review on the Midtown South Mixed-Use plan to create nearly 10,000 homes — all building on this year’s State of the City address to create a “City of Yes for Families,” a multi-pronged approach to housing, zoning, and public space that will create more family-friendly neighborhoods and build new housing.
Since entering office, Mayor Adams has made historic investments to create affordable housing and ensure more New Yorkers have a place to call home. DCP is advancing several robust neighborhood plans that, if adopted, would deliver more than 50,000 units over the next 15 years. In addition to the now-approved Atlantic Avenue Mixed-Use Plan, DCP is advancing plans in Midtown South in Manhattan as well as Jamaica and Long Island City in Queens. Last year, the City Council approved the Bronx-Metro North Station Area Plan, which will create approximately 7,000 homes and 10,000 permanent jobs in the East Bronx.
Moreover, last December, Mayor Adams celebrated the passage of “City of Yes for Housing Opportunity,” the most pro-housing proposal in city history that will build 80,000 new homes over 15 years and invest $5 billion towards critical infrastructure updates and housing. In June 2024, City Hall and the City Council agreed to an on-time, balanced, and fiscally-responsible $112.4 billion Fiscal Year (FY) 2025 Adopted Budget that invested $2 billion in capital funds across FY25 and FY26 to HPD and the New York City Housing Authority’s capital budgets. In total, the Adams administration has committed $24.5 billion in housing capital in the current 10-year plan as the city faces a generational housing crisis. Mayor Adams celebrated back-to-back record breaking fiscal years, as well as back-to-back calendar years in both creating and connecting New Yorkers to affordable housing. Last 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 accessory dwelling units that will not only help older adults afford to remain in the communities they call home but also help build generational wealth.
In addition to creating more housing opportunities, the Adams administration is actively working to strengthen tenant protections and support homeowners. The Partners in Preservation program was expanded citywide in 2024 through an $11 million investment in local organizations to support tenant organizing and combat harassment in rent-regulated housing. The Homeowner Help Desk, a trusted one-stop shop for low-income homeowners to receive financial and legal counseling from local organizations, was also expanded citywide in 2024 with a $9.85 million funding commitment.
Finally, 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.
