"City of Yes" proposals for 100K new homes include density bonus for below-market units, but affordability level unclear. Info session tomorrow.
Mayor Adams Launches Historic Effort to Build "A Little More Housing in Every Neighborhood," the city announced 9/21/23. Translation: a potential 100,000 more homes over 15 years, or 6,667 a year.
More crucial for those watching development in the area around Atlantic Yards is the "Universal Affordability Preference," which is a 20% density bonus for all affordable housing--including additions to existing buildings but most likely for new construction, as The City explains.
As City Limits reported, Department of City Planning (DCP) Chair Dan Garodnick said, "We believe that we can and should do better than the current 80% AMI.”
Perhaps today, DCP will release a draft scope of work for the City of Yes for Housing Opportunity and early documentation in the environmental review process. Tomorrow there will be a virtual public information session, at 6:30 pm.
With the formal public review process starting next spring, and recommendations by all five borough presidents, all five borough boards, and all 59 community boards, the initiative will be voted upon by the City Planning Commission and the City Council in fall 2024.
Also proposed is "Shared Living," which would allow single room occupancy (SRO) apartments, with shared kitches and bathrooms.
Under "Town Center 'Main Streets' Zoning," commercial corridors could include two to four stories of apartments over ground-floor commercial space.
Under "Converting Empty Offices into Housing," buildings built as recently as 1990 would now be eligible, and such conversions could happen anywhere in the city--not just Manhattan--with zoning that allows for housing.
The “City of Yes for Housing Opportunity” proposal is part of Adams’ “moonshot” goal of delivering 500,000 new homes to New Yorkers over the next decade, given that population and jobs exceeds the supply of residences.
The top feature is "Ending Parking Mandates for New Housing," which drives up costs--and helps explain why applicants for spot rezonings propose eliminating a parking requirement. But that proposal may face challenge in certain neighborhoods less connected to public transit.
New affordability
More crucial for those watching development in the area around Atlantic Yards is the "Universal Affordability Preference," which is a 20% density bonus for all affordable housing--including additions to existing buildings but most likely for new construction, as The City explains.
That perhaps explains, albeit in part, how the coming 542 Dean Street building for seniors will have 154 units, not 100.
As City Limits reported, Department of City Planning (DCP) Chair Dan Garodnick said, "We believe that we can and should do better than the current 80% AMI.”
That's a crucial issue, ignored in some press coverage, because 80% of AMI--$101,680 for a three-person household--while technically low-income, is hardly where the need is greatest.
Rather, that's Option 2 under the city's Mandatory Inclusionary Housing (MIH), while Option 1 averages at 60% of AMI and Option 3 at 40% of AMI.
And the latter--or variations thereof--are what have been achieved in some spot rezonings in the M-CROWN area east of Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park, part of the pending Atlantic Avenue Mixed-Use Plan, or AAMUP. The affordability levels for AAMUP remain unclear, but the draft zoning guidelines--subject to revision--would allow 80% of AMI.
Discussion coming
Perhaps today, DCP will release a draft scope of work for the City of Yes for Housing Opportunity and early documentation in the environmental review process. Tomorrow there will be a virtual public information session, at 6:30 pm.
With the formal public review process starting next spring, and recommendations by all five borough presidents, all five borough boards, and all 59 community boards, the initiative will be voted upon by the City Planning Commission and the City Council in fall 2024.
Other proposals
Also proposed is "Shared Living," which would allow single room occupancy (SRO) apartments, with shared kitches and bathrooms.
Under "Town Center 'Main Streets' Zoning," commercial corridors could include two to four stories of apartments over ground-floor commercial space.
"Transit-Oriented Development" would foster "apartment buildings between three and five stories on large lots near transit stops in places where they will blend with the existing neighborhood." It's amazing that some have previously been banned by restrictive zoning.
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| Neighborhoods where new transit-oriented developments could be built. Source: DCP |
Also, a continued push for "Accessory Dwelling Units," up to 800 square feet on one- and two-family properties
Under "Converting Empty Offices into Housing," buildings built as recently as 1990 would now be eligible, and such conversions could happen anywhere in the city--not just Manhattan--with zoning that allows for housing.
Finally, "Maximizing Campuses" would allow religious institutions or NYCHA developments, for example, to add new buildings currently prohibited by "complex and outdated rules."
Going forward
What's next? As Christopher Bonanos wrote in Curbed,
Many of the reforms are overdue no-brainers that nonetheless will take some brains to push through... So the question now is: Can the Adams administration, which has been fairly good about tossing out ideas, get better at the boring, crummy business of outreach and wheedling that transforms rhetoric into brick and concrete and thus avoid the fate of Kathy Hochul’s housing plan? “We’re perfectly imperfect, but we’re dedicated,” Adams said in his speech. He has two years and two months to go before the city judges him on just how imperfect and dedicated.
But expect discussion, and debate, on such elements as parking minimums and affordability thresholds.
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