Mayor Adams announced Thursday a sweeping package of proposed zoning changes — including the elimination of parking minimums and allowing garages to be legally converted into homes — aimed at facilitating the creation of about 100,000 new homes in the next 10 to 15 years in a move that’s a direct response to New York City’s ongoing housing crisis.
Adams touted it as “the most ambitious changes to zoning in the history of New York City.” Rather than concentrating new housing in certain parts of the city, the measures would try to create “a little more housing in every neighborhood” by easing some of the strict zoning rules currently in place.
“So many of the issues we face as a city are rooted in this ongoing crisis,” Adams said. “We must change the restrictive laws that were put in place 62 years ago [with the 1961 Zoning Resolution].”
The citywide approach contrasts with the neighborhood-level and spot rezonings that have been used to ease zoning restrictions to allow for more and often taller housing.
“This is not tinkering around the edges,” Adams said. “Today, we’re proposing a slate of new rules that, if passed by our City Council, remove longstanding barriers to opportunity and usher in a new golden age of housing in New York City.”
In neighborhoods with smaller and fewer buildings the proposals would attempt to cut municipal red tape to make it easier for owners to adapt their homes.
Among other things, it would allow for certain types of “accessory dwelling units” to be built, such as backyard cottages and basement apartments, and conversions of attics and garages into housing. It would also aim to “safely legalize” existing ones.
One of the buzziest components announced Thursday is the elimination of parking mandates for new homes, space the city says it would rather use for housing.
“If you want to build parking spots, you still can,” Adams explained. “But we will not force people to build parking they do not want.”
The rules would also enable two to four stories of housing to be built above squat, single-story commercial buildings to match the height of neighboring ones.
The city currently gives leeway for the creation of affordable senior housing, allowing for increased heights, an exception the administration is proposing extending to now include all forms of affordable and supportive housing in denser neighborhoods.
Under the new proposals, housing could also be built on various “large campuses” around the city, such as in the parking lots of houses of worship or on NYCHA property. Other changes include allowing three-to-five-story apartment buildings to be built on large lots near transit hubs as a way of blending in with the community; and making it legal once more for “modest apartments” to have common facilities such as shared kitchens and bathrooms.
The measures are the third and final prong of the Department of City Planning’s “City of Yes” initiative to revamp outdated zoning. The first two, aimed at eco-friendly fixes and economic recovery, were introduced earlier this year with far less ceremony than Thursday’s “Housing Opportunity” announcement, which took place in a packed auditorium at the Borough of Manhattan Community College in Tribeca.
They fall under Adams’ previously stated “moonshot” goal of creating 500,000 new homes in the city over the next decade.
The mayor also called out the state government for failing to pass a housing deal during the last legislative session.
“We cannot do this alone,” Adams said. “We need Albany’s help to maximize affordability.”
The fate of the “Housing Opportunity” plan ultimately lies with a vote by City Council.
Speaker Adrienne Adams welcomed the proposals in a statement, saying “it is imperative that our city’s policies and zoning align to achieve housing growth through the lens of equity and access.”
Though still in its earliest stages, the plan has been applauded by pro-development advocacy groups that have long advocated for more sweeping fixes to the housing crisis.
“We cannot solve this project by project,” Annemarie Gray, executive director of Open New York, said of the “dramatic one-off rezoning fights” that have occurred on the local level in recent years. “We have to make sure nothing gets cut. We have to make sure that these are all the most ambitious, sensible versions of the ideas that we just put forward.”
The “Housing Opportunity” plan won’t enter formal public review until next spring and won’t be voted on until fall 2024.
