As two key City Council committees prepare to vote on Thursday on Mayor Adams’s City of Yes for Housing Opportunity, the Council and the Adams administration are engaged in intense negotiations over the zoning initiative’s key element – the elimination of costly parking mandates citywide – that could water it down to appease lawmakers from low-density districts that oppose the plan.
“This is the stage of the process where big ideas get filtered and turned into what the political system can stomach, and there is a lot being digested right now in real time,” said Howard Slatkin, the Executive Director of the Citizens Housing & Planning Council and a former City Planning official. “Even a pared-back version could still be a good meal, but the devil is in the details.”
The plan’s central pillar – removing parking mandates citywide – has consistently been questioned by politicians, even those who say they want more housing. Parking mandates, which were introduced in 1950 under Robert Moses, directly affect housing production because they incentivize “under-building,” or building fewer units then zoning allows because parking is expensive, costing on average over $60,000 per underground space.
“If they pare back [removing parking mandates] things, it just means you get less housing. And the least expensive stuff to build is the most important stuff for us to figure out,” said Slatkin.
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