In 2015, Mayor Bill de Blasio pledged to transform huge swaths of New York City with one ambitious goal: to “make our neighborhoods stronger and more affordable.”
His administration hoped to do that through rezonings,
which would create thousands of new apartments—a good chunk of which
would be below-market rate—in various communities, all while working
toward the mayor’s ultimate goal of creating or preserving 300,000
“affordable” apartments by 2026.
More than four years since that policy was unveiled, his
administration has rezoned six neighborhoods (no small feat, but short
of the 15 it originally aspired to), with two proposals nearing formal
review and another study in the works. But in recent months, the work of
realizing these rezonings has stalled as community groups and lawmakers
have pushed back on those plans.
In December, a state judge annulled a 2018 rezoning of Inwood,
finding that the city failed to fully consider how land use changes
would impact the Manhattan neighborhood. Two weeks into 2019, a proposed
rezoning of Bushwick was effectively killed
after the local City Council members, who had favored a plan crafted by
residents, could not reach a compromise with City Hall. And soon after
that, Bronx Councilmember Rafael Salamanca announced that he would
oppose rezoning a stretch of Southern Boulevard, citing a recent study
that says land use changes disproportionately displace black and Latino residents.
Some of these efforts could still eventually come to fruition; the Inwood ruling is under appeal, and a proposal for Gowanus
is currently on track. But the stalled rezonings have undoubtedly dealt
a blow to de Blasio’s signature housing policy. Those zoning changes
were expected to create about 50,000 below-market-rate units with 7,000
to be financed in Bushwick and Inwood alone. Now, with two years left in
his tenure, it’s unclear if de Blasio will reach that 300,000-unit
goal.
To date, his administration has created or preserved 147,933 low- and-middle income apartments. In 2019, it financed just 25,889 apartments, which was a substantial dip from the 34,184 it financed in 2018—last year was the first time the city saw a decrease in the housing it financed from years prior.
City Hall spokesperson Jane Meyer tells Curbed that the
administration’s housing plan is still on track. “We have a robust
pipeline of affordable housing projects which extends beyond the current
administration and will enable us to meet our 300,000 goal regardless
of other land-use changes,” she says. While she did not point to
specific projects or programs that are anticipated to pick up the slack,
those efforts could include major city-backed housing projects (such as
a development in Far Rockaway where earlier this month the city financed 793 new affordable units), and initiatives like building infill housing on underutilized New York City Housing Authority land.
Yet there are some parts of the city where residential
development is limited or cannot exist without overhauling the area’s
zoning framework.
“Without the rezonings, you will get fewer units over the
long run,” says Matthew Murphy, the executive director of the NYU
Furman Center and a former official at the city’s Department of Housing
Preservation and Development. “It’s not just an issue for this
administration; I think it’s the issue of recognizing that NYC is in a
housing shortage, and that’s going to take a mix of affordable housing
and market-rate housing to help get us out of this statutorily defined
crisis.”
The big picture, Murphy stresses, is that new
construction in New York City has struggled to keep pace with population
growth since the middle of the 20th century. The city’s vacancy rate
for rentals is 3.6 percent, which means roughly 36 out of 1,000 units
are vacant at a given time, according to the New York City Rent Guidelines Board.
That vacancy rate, of course, plunges for the city’s lowest priced
units; apartments under $800/month, for instance, have a vacancy rate of
just .9 percent, data shows.
In mapping out where that sorely needed affordable
housing will be built, a balancing act must occur between displacement
concerns and equitable placement throughout the city, say tenant
advocates. Rezonings spur gentrification anxieties and displacement
fears, leading to fierce community opposition. Oftentimes, neighborhood
rezonings beef up building heights and density on major thoroughfares to
enable new construction. These plans impose an affordable housing
mandate on new residential units through a mechanism called mandatory inclusionary housing, which is facing renewed scrutiny.
Over the years, de Blasio’s rezonings have taken heat for
predominately occurring in low-income, minority communities.
Christopher Walters, a rezoning technical assistance coordinator with
the Association for Neighborhood and Housing Development, says that by
doing this the administration is “putting the burden of absorbing new
density for the city on these types of communities where displacement
concerns are very real.” Instead, a comprehensive, citywide framework is
needed to ensure the city is planning growth more equitably, he says.
That debate over ensuring that a mix of neighborhoods
create new density and affordable housing is playing out intensely in
Soho and Noho, where longtime locals and housing advocates have butted
heads over the future of the sought-after, mostly white community. A recent study
of the area, where most lofts are legally reserved for artists,
explores zoning reforms that could potentially prioritize the creation
of affordable housing.
The pro-housing group Open New York has put forward its own vision
for Soho and Noho that could lead to the creation of 3,400 new homes,
nearly 700 of which would be below-market-rate. But at a series of
recent community meetings, opposition to new housing has been
vehement—and for city officials watching this unfold, it signals an
uphill battle.
Will Thomas, a board member of Open New York, says
there’s an “unfair dynamic” at play with the rezoning process, where the
voices of wealthier residents can either have too much weight or the
concerns raised by lower-income communities are not fully taken into
account.
“The administration doesn’t see rezonings of wealthy
neighborhoods as politically possible,” said Thomas. “The problem with
that is there is a lot of resentment generated when you ask [low-income,
minority] neighborhoods to accommodate all of the city’s growth.”
That tension has led some lawmakers to draw a line in the
sand for their districts. Salamanca, who is the chairman of the
Council’s Land Use Committee, effectively hit the brakes on a likely
rezoning of Southern Boulevard before a formal plan was even developed.
The Department of City Planning studied more than 130 blocks
in Crotona Park East and Longwood, which encompasses part of Southern
Boulevard. A rezoning proposal there could bring thousands of new
apartments (including a chunk of affordable ones) to major
transportation corridors, but Salamanca says he fears the changes will
ultimate accelerate rising rents and displace the neighborhood’s mostly
minority residents.
“In my council district, I am doing my part to bring in
affordable housing units; the administration has to focus on and look at
other communities that can do their fair share and add density,” he
told Curbed in an interview. During his tenure, Salamanca says more than
5,000 units of affordable housing have been created and another 2,000
preserved in his district. While several infrastructure needs are
already being addressed—upgrades to sewer and water mains are in the
works, along with several street redesigns and park projects—the
district still has unmet needs, but Salamanca says he is in a position
to carefully weigh the risks versus the rewards of a neighborhood
rezoning.
In a recent interview on WNYC’s The Brian Lehrer Show,
de Blasio said that he is committed to building affordable housing in a
mix of neighborhoods across the city, but also noted that during the
remainder of his mayoralty he will be focused on pushing rezonings his
administration perceives as the most “viable” to make it through the
city’s often contentious land use review process. He alluded that Soho and Noho are currently not on that list.
“We have to create affordable housing
everywhere if we’re going to keep this city a city for everyone,” said
de Blasio. “What I want to be very real about in the next two years is
where are the things that we are absolutely certain there will be the
support for in the [review] process to get it done? Because I got two
years to work urgently on these issues and I’m going to put my energy in
the places where I’m convinced we can get something done.”
https://ny.curbed.com/2020/2/6/21123983/nyc-affordable-housing-rezoning-bill-de-blasio
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