The City Planning Commission moved the City of Yes for Housing Opportunity proposal forward Wednesday by a 10-3 vote after introducing some tweaks to Mayor Eric Adams’ signature housing policy.
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Among the many changes the sweeping plan would make to residential zoning across the five boroughs, City of Yes would make office-to-residential conversions easier, lift floor-to-area-ratio caps and increase allowable density throughout the city.
Before casting the first vote, City Planning Commission Chair Dan Garodnick emphasized the importance of the proposal in the wake of the housing crisis.
“Over the last 60 years, we have piled on more and more complicated and restrictive zoning rules that stymied urgently needed homes from being built,” Garodnick said. “Even though New York City's population has grown considerably over the past four decades, we have built fewer homes than in the prior 40 years when our population was shrinking.”
“We don't have to live this way,” he added.
The Adams administration’s proposal was opposed by commission members Alfred Cerullo, Leah Goodridge and Juan Camilo Osorio.
Cerullo, who serves as the commission’s Staten Island representative, called the city-wide rezoning proposal a “one-size-fits-all solution.” In particular, the commissioner targeted its allowance of accessory dwelling units and reduction of lot sizes.
“What is missing from this discussion is what many lower-density districts like Staten Island are and have been doing in the area of housing development throughout the years and even today,” Cerullo said. “On Staten Island alone, there are approximately 4,000 new units of housing that are approved to be built but not yet realized.”
Goodridge and Osorio said their votes to reject the proposal were due largely to the lack of affordable housing mandates it contains.
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Goodridge particularly rejected the idea that the only residents opposed to the zoning changes are “white homeowners in Staten Island and Queens, who are so-called NIMBYs.”
“This framing of housing, to address the housing shortage and to address the housing crisis as making it a supply-and-demand issue to help Black and brown New Yorkers is wrong. It's inaccurate framing,” Goodridge said. “And I don't want to use the word exploitative, but it doesn't address the real meat.”
Others agreed that they would like more affordability mandates but voted yes anyway. Concerns raised by various commissioners also included City of Yes’ proposal to end requirements for parking, as well as the increased density around Long Island Rail Road or Metro-North Railroad stops, which they said are not true transit hubs.
There were a few tweaks made to the rezoning, including exempting public housing campuses from the changes. Developers also scored with proposals that would allow off-site construction to count toward affordable housing requirements and further density increases as long as that space is used for affordable housing.
The vote followed a 15-hour hearing held in July on the issue, where the commission and the public were filled in on the components of the proposal. Residents of lower-density neighborhoods in the city testified in droves to oppose the changes.
But a recent survey of more than 1,700 registered voters showed that 71% of New Yorkers approve of the housing portion of City of Yes. After examining a map showing how much housing each neighborhood has built between 2010 and 2023 — with most development taking place in parts of Brooklyn and Queens — 72% of survey participants said that producing more housing in all neighborhoods would be considered fair.
Today’s vote kicks Adams' massive proposal to the City Council which will then have two months to review and approve the plan.
The housing component is the third and final part of Adams' signature City of Yes initiative. In December 2023, City of Yes for Carbon Neutrality, which lifts barriers to green systems, was passed. In June, the City of Yes for Economic Opportunity was adopted by the council, removing outdated limitations on businesses.
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