Mayor Eric Adams’ proposal to change land use rules across the five boroughs to promote housing construction is both sweeping and modest, officials leading the effort told City Council members Monday in the first of two public hearings.
Department of City Planning Commissioner Dan Gardonick and Department of Housing Preservation and Development Commissioner Adolfo Carrión fielded questions from City Council members, who expressed skepticism both about new development’s potential to strain neighborhoods and also how far the zoning changes would go to address a persistent shortage of affordable housing.
The proposal, City of Yes for Housing Opportunity, is the “most pro-housing policy in the history of New York City zoning,” Garodnick said, adding that it would “allow us to take a big bite of our housing crisis citywide.”
At the same time, he said, the impact would be minimal, with new housing development incremental enough to avoid negative impacts on infrastructure, like already-taxed sewer systems that can’t handle water during heavy rains.
The zoning proposal is a package of land use changes that the Adams administration expects to result in 58,000 to 109,000 new units of housing by 2039. The proposal would allow two to four stories of apartments atop businesses on commercial strips and near transit-rich areas; make parking spots optional for new residential developments; let owners of one- and two-family houses turn attics, garages and possibly basements into apartments, and let developers build more housing as long as the additional units are affordable.
The proposal comes as New York City is in the throes of a housing shortage, where new construction has not kept up with population growth and high demand for housing with limited supply has spiked costs. The city’s rental vacancy rate is 1.4% — the lowest in decades — and over half of New York City renters spend more than one-third of their income on rent.
With the City of Yes, New York City joins a spate of other cities nationwide that have reconsidered zoning rules that have long held back housing production by restricting what can be built and where. In New York City, where the current code dates back to 1961, some neighborhoods have produced a disproportionate number of units of housing compared to others that have been shielded by tight zoning restrictions.
“Zoning is not a panacea…but what it does is it moves the needle forward,” Carrión said. “The key here is that we expand the footprint of opportunity around the city.”
‘You Cannot Just Say No’
The hearing spotlit specific concerns of Council members that suggest where the body may make amendments to the proposal: around rent levels for affordable housing, parking requirements and so-called accessory dwelling units.
A heated exchange between Garodnick and Councilmember Robert Holden (D-Queens) got to the heart of much of the opposition to the proposal. Like several of his colleagues, Holden raised concerns about eliminating requirements to add parking with new developments given the already limited parking in his district in western Queens, which is located far from transit, and adding more people to a place that experiences flooding and sewer backups when it rains.
Garodnick said the environmental review showed any new housing created would not exacerbate flooding issues. He also said developers could still build parking spaces with their apartment buildings, and that he believed they would do so where those parking spaces were most needed — but the developers just wouldn’t be forced to comply with a costly mandate that has limited the number of units that could be built.
“You cannot opt out, you cannot just say no,” Garodnick said in response to Holden’s resistance to adding new housing in his district. “Your district has to be part of the solution.”
“No, we don’t!” Holden shot back. “When sewers back up, we have a problem.… By leaving the parking requirements up to developers, that’s disgraceful.”
He added, “You’re not going to convince us in Queens that this will not be a huge burden.”
Holden also raised objections to the possible allowance of more basement units within the proposal, given that multiple people drowned during Hurricane Ida in 2021. Garodnick countered that creating more housing would prevent desperate people from seeking such dangerous accommodations in the first place, and that new, legal basement units would be safer for both tenants and first responders than the status quo.
Council Speaker Adrienne Adams (D-Queens) has said that zoning reform is not enough to solve the housing crisis and promised the Council would create a separate housing plan to augment the zoning effort.
“New Yorkers also need deeper affordability, expanded pathways to affordable homeownership, strengthened tenant protections, the removal of barriers to housing vouchers, investments in their neighborhoods, and more,” Adams said.
The City Council will hear testimony from members of the public on Tuesday and is expected to amend and vote on the proposal, which the City Planning Commission approved in September, before the year’s end.
