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NYC's Strong Zoning for Quality Proposal
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On Friday, February 20, the New York City Department of City Planning released a series of zoning proposals entitled, Housing New York: Zoning for Quality and Affordability.
Strong Zoning for Quality Proposal from Administration
On Friday, February 20, the New York City Department of City Planning released a series of zoning proposals entitled, Housing New York: Zoning for Quality and Affordability. While ultimately our zoning code is just one piece of the affordable housing puzzle, and needs to be coupled with capital and operational funding streams, proper tax and IZ policy, and a partnership with local community developers, the City has committed to several needed, creative zoning changes that will not only make it easier to develop affordable housing for today’s New York, but most importantly, puts in place forward-thinking modifications that will make it easier to develop the type of affordable housing we need for the New York City that is coming in the next decades.
Chief among these is a rethinking of our guidelines for Senior Housing. Seniors are a rapidly growing population, and these proposals make it easier to develop more and different types of Senior Housing – including putting Senior Housing in mixed-age developments – which are key components to addressing this upcoming need. Another demographic reality also needs to be taken into account however: our senior population is substantially made up of very- and extremely-low income individuals. As such, the Senior Housing developed must be truly affordable, and a robust support program, in conjunction with the State, is another needed component.
Transit activists, as well as housing advocates, should also be happy at the proposed reduction of parking requirements in affordable and mixed-income housing near transit stations, and developers and architects should applaud the additional flexibility in the zoning envelope, which is expected to not only maximize building size, but also lead to a greater variety of architectural models and move the city away from encouraging only uniform “box” style developments.
As always, the devil is in the details, and real engagement will be needed to make sure the changes are nuanced and appropriate for local communities. But the city has taken a bold and needed step with these proposals, and we look forward to working with them to improve our neighborhoods as the proposals move through the land-use process.