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The East New York rezoning has cleared another major hurdle. The land use committee voted 18-1 in favor of the plan, which calls for 6,500 new housing units in the neighborhood.
The area covered by the rezoning will be the first in the city where the new mandatory inclusionary housing requirement will apply. The first 1,200 to deliver will need to be affordable under the version of the rezoning the committee voted on, and half of the total will have to be affordable, the New York Daily News reports.
Out of the affordable units, between 40% and 60% will be set aside for households that make as much as $47k a year. Housing that will be affordable for families making as little as $23k a year and as much as $70k a year are also included in the allotments.
The plan has been bolstered by pledges by the city to improve services in the area on several fronts. A renovated Callahan-Kelly Playground and Highland Park will improve two areas of green space in a part of the city that suffers from a dearth of it.
There will be a homeowner help desk to help people handle an expected onslaught of realtors asking whether they want to sell. And the city has agreed to close a local homeless shelter and help its residents find their own housing in the area.
There will also be renovations to schools in the neighborhood and infrastructure improvements like sewer main replacements and a new conduit for broadband internet. [NYDN]
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