In plan for Brooklyn, Borough President Reynoso will advocate for more housing, especially near transit and in the borough's southern and eastern sections.

I wrote recently about the illuminating graphics found in The Comprensive Plan for Brooklyn: A Vision for a Healthier, More Equitable Borough (also bottom), released by Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso. 

One key bottom line is that he will push for more housing where it has lagged. Now let's take a closer look.

According to the report:

Our comprehensive plan is many things at once: 1) It is a vision of a Brooklyn for all. 2) It is a recognition that the well-being of a neighborhood and of our borough is dictated by how we use our land, allocate our funding, and administer our programs. 3) It’s a tool with which we can measure the merits of a proposal, advocate for community needs, and push for changes to our neighborhoods that make sense. 4) It is an information and data resource that can be useful to anyone and everyone. 5) And, critically, it is a space where dialogue can coalesce and a comprehensive plan for our entire city can grow.

He acknowledged he can't implement himself or promise it will outlive him. But he will use it as a guiding document for all projects that come to his office during public review.

From the Executive Summary

"For too long, NYC decision-makers have been forced to make choices about development projects and resource allocations without this greater context" of boroughwide needs and history.

To increase access to safe and healthy affordable housing, the objectives include:

• 2.1 Develop new affordable housing in keeping with fair housing principles, especially in areas where housing production has not kept pace with population growth
• 2.2 Support transit-oriented development
• 2.3 Preserve and improve government-regulated housing, including rent-regulated, income-restricted, and public housing; and protect homeowners from foreclosure

The framework for Housing Growth & Parking Demand Management is:

With a focus on southern and eastern Brooklyn, where housing growth has not kept pace with population growth and lack of transit access leads to more vehicle miles traveled, this framework recommends housing growth furthering fair transit-oriented development (within a half-mile of existing and proposed mass transit), and less congested streets.

I'll cite some other specific proposals lower down.

History of Planning in NYC

A section on the history of planning notes that, after implementing the 1961 zoning code, the City fully developed and published a comprehensive plan - the 1969 Plan for New York City, but it was never adopted, though it contained a statement of existing conditions, specific policy proposals, and a spatial development strategy for each borough.

Other strategic documents, such as Mayor Mike Bloomberg's PlanNYC or four regional plans developed by nonprofit powerhouse Regional Plan Association (RPA), lay out objectives and policies but don't mandate a land use plan.

The 197-a Plan Process, which provides a way for residents to guide long-term planning and development, instituted in the 1989 revision of the city Charter, can be sponsored by Community Boards (and larger entities), mostly apply to a single Community District, but have not been prioritized.

Housing Growth

The report notes:

The northern half of the borough has the vast majority of multi-family buildings and has seen the bulk of new development, including income-restricted and market-rate housing. Between 2010 and 2020, neighborhoods in north and central Brooklyn saw large increases in the total number of residences, in some cases adding hundreds of units per census tract. Some of these gains can be attributed to policies that facilitated multifamily residential development, such as the 2005 Greenpoint/ Williamsburg rezoning. In other neighborhoods such as Bushwick, zoning allows for relatively large new buildings to be constructed without any discretionary changes.

Over the same period, Park Slope, Carroll Gardens, and Brooklyn Heights saw the largest declines in their housing supply, in some cases losing over 100 units per census tract.

The latter came about surely because of consolidation of units in buildings, not demolitions.

Affordable housing incentives

Incentives for affordable housing came slowly:

Before 2016, the City designated some neighborhoods such as Greenpoint/Williamsburg as Voluntary Inclusionary Housing (VIH) areas, where developers could choose to build more density in exchange for providing a percentage of income-restricted units. In 2016, the City adopted the Mandatory Inclusionary Housing (MIH) program, which requires any developer that receives a rezoning for more density (or is building in a neighborhood that was rezoned post-2016) to provide a percentage of income-restricted housing. The State’s 421-a tax exemption sunset in 2023, but previously provided a tax exemption in exchange for creation of new income-restricted housing.

Additionally, the City may provide subsidies and/or tax exemption for property owners to maintain income-restricted rents in existing buildings (commonly referred to as “preservation” though notably different from historic preservation, described above).

Income-restricted housing–both new construction and preservation has been almost entirely concentrated in the northern and eastern parts of Brooklyn, with the exception of Coney Island, some new construction in Flatbush, and limited preservation in Sunset Park. 

Note the failure to require affordable housing in the rezoning of Downtown Brooklyn.

Displacement Risk

From the report:

Displacement risk refers to residents’ inability to remain in their neighborhoods due to housing/real estate conditions and socioeconomic pressures. Higher and lower-risk areas are found across all community districts. However, displacement risk is highest in neighborhoods immediately south of Prospect Park, as well as in Bensonhurst and northern Bushwick.

When viewed in conjunction with recent housing construction and residential density, it becomes apparent that the areas with highest displacement risk are also those lagging behind in housing growth.

Other recommendations and implications

The Borough President will consider re-filing applications that he supported but the developer withdrew, won't support downzonings that restrict new housing growth (well, the Bloomberg administration already did), and will work with applicants to explore adding more and deeper affordability than required by Mandatory Inclusionary Housing (MIH).

The latter could/should come up with the spot rezoning pending in the Atlantic Avenue Mixed-Use Plan area, 962 Pacific, as well as in that pending plan itself. After all, the City Council is already considering changing MIH.

He will encourage "mapping higher density zoning districts on public sites where multiple public purposes could be achieved." That seems in keeping with, for example, the upzoning of city-owned sites for 100% affordable housing at 542 Dean Street and 512 Bergen Street in Prospect Heights.

Interestingly, the report acknowledges the impact of delay:

After a discretionary approval is granted, explore additional mechanisms to spur development to add housing supply, such as tax penalties or a sunset provision for zoning approval, if development does not commence within a set timeframe.

That doesn't apply to Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park, because it's a state project, but you can see the logic.

More on housing, and transit-oriented development

Like others, Reynoso aims to eliminate residential parking requirements across the whole borough. That doesn't mean that new buildings can't contain parking, it's just that it wouldn't be required. Expect pushback in neighborhoods with less transit.

He recommends proactively planning for higher manufacturing and residential densities around transit expansions, such as the proposed Interborough Express (IBX) and Select Bus Service (SBS)/express bus service on Utica and Flatlands Avenues. 

Those have the potential to deliver a lot more housing. But it shows the failure to invest, decades ago, in new subways.

However much Reynoso is critical of the Adams administration, he supports development of more “missing middle” housing such, as three- and four-family homes in the upcoming City of Yes for Housing Opportunity initiative.

Yes, he supports expansion of social housing models such as community land trusts, advocates for full funding of NYCHA capital repair needs, advocates for fair housing and acceptance of vouhcers,  supports tenants against eviction, and aims to prevent foreclosures and predatory real estate practices.

They may be different political battles.