New Yorkers spent more than 11 hours testifying to the City Planning Commission on sweeping zoning proposals affecting housing production.
Adams administration officials presented the proposal to update city zoning rules before the City Planning Commission Wednesday during a marathon hearing that lasted well over 12 hours. The plan would allow for increased housing production across all of its 59 districts.
Components include making office-to-residential conversions easier, legalizing accessory dwelling units, building higher-density housing around transit hubs and removing mandatory parking minimums for new multifamily developments.
But one question underpinned public comments during the hearing, especially amid the myriad comments in opposition from the public: Do New Yorkers understand zoning regulations well enough to know what the housing component of City of Yes will mean?
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“Zoning either allows housing to get built or it doesn’t,” Citizens Housing and Planning Council Director Howard Slatkin said during his testimony. “Zoning doesn’t actually make the housing get built. Money is what makes the housing get built.”
The city has tax incentives in place in order to fund affordable housing construction, he said. But zoning remains an obstacle, which is why he showed up to speak in support of the policy on Wednesday.
“The more restrictive we make the zoning, the more we add restrictions on the circumstances under which you’re allowed to build housing, the less housing we will get,” he said.
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