By New York Post (U.S.) | Created at 2024-11-22 00:17:39 | Updated at 2024-11-22 06:36:46
6 hours ago
New York could soon be a “City of Yes” — sort of.
The City Council approved Mayor Eric Adams’ controversial sweeping plan to build tens of thousands of housing units across the Big Apple in down-to-the-wire votes — after a $5 billion funding promise from Hizzoner and a handful of concessions.
After hours of delays Thursday, a pair of council committees signed off on the massive slate of zoning adjustments, sending it to the full body for a vote early next month.
But the council approvals came with some caveats, such as restricting basement dwelling units in flood-prone zones and backyard housing to areas close to transit.
It also created three zones for parking requirements — with councilmembers arguing each community has its own varied need for cars.
The Adams administration had lobbied for removing all parking spot requirements when adding new housing units and lifting nearly all restrictions on basements and backyard apartments.
In addition, the mayor, who has made the zoning changes a cornerstone of his first term, caved to councilmembers for an ask of $5 billion to fund roads, public building renovations, water systems, sewage facilities and more.
Even so, Adams praised the development.
“I never go into a negotiation expecting to walk away with everything that I want,” he told reporters after the votes.
“I want to go into a negotiation walking away where we both got enough to accomplish the task, and we did that — the most historical housing reform in the history of the city.”
Council Speaker Adrienne Adams called the votes “an important step forward” to address the city’s housing crisis.
“Residents of our city need affordable and stable homes to rent and own and addressing that shortage, while supporting existing homeowners and tenants, deepening affordability and strengthening the infrastructure of neighborhoods, are goals we must all share for a safer and stronger city,” Adams, no relation to the mayor, said.
Despite the concessions, the plan is the first major change to the city’s zoning rules since 1961 and is being touted for paving the way for builders to create tens of thousands of new homes.
The 11th-hour delays came down to minute, neighborhood-specific details hashed out between City Hall and the council before the midnight deadline, which included concessions that fell short of pro-development “Yes In My Backyard” backers’ wish list, but likely not enough to assuage “Not In My Backyard” opponents.
“They’ve managed to successfully piss off the YIMBYs and the NIMBYs,” one source with knowledge of the negotiations told The Post as the talks dragged on into the early evening.
Adams was able to cough up the financial sweetener late Wednesday with the help of Gov. Kathy Hochul, who promised an influx of $1 billion from the state over a decade, sources said.
“I’m proud to stand with them as they move forward with their plan to build a little more housing in every neighborhood,” Hochul. “We need all hands on deck to build more housing and make New York more affordable for all of us.”
The funding will provide $1 billion for affordable housing expenses, $2 billion in capital to build housing and another $2 billion for expanding infrastructure, including expanding sewers and other city systems, which was a key concern for lawmakers with adding tens of thousands of housing units.
The plan’s broad strokes would bring 80,000 more housing units to the city, down from the originally estimated 100,000, officials said.
But opponents in neighborhoods across the city have balked over the zoning plan, which was hashed out over a year.
More than half of the city’s 59 community boards voted against the proposal.
The opposition extended into Thursday when Laurelton resident Sherwyn James made a last-ditch effort to raise his concerns with the proposal by confronting Adams in the City Hall rotunda.
“We really don’t think that it’s a suitable place to have an additional influx of residents coming in,” he said of Queens neighborhoods.
The plan’s advocates, meanwhile, were aghast that the negotiations appeared to water down a proposal to eliminate a mandate that all new developments include parking.
The so-called parking mandate, they maintained, ate into space that could be used to create new apartments.
“Truly a failure of leadership on the part of this Council,” tweeted Sara Lind, co-executive director of Open Plans.
“Over 80 cities have lifted parking mandates citywide but NYC is showing once again we can’t do hard things.”
