Eric Adams proposes 6K new units near Bronx commuter stations

Push part of mayor’s “moonshot” goal for city development

A photo illustration of Mayor of New York City Eric Adams (Getty)
A photo illustration of Mayor of New York City Eric Adams (Getty)

Mayor Eric Adams’ “moonshot” goal for New York City is set to transform the Bronx with 6,000 new housing units near future Metro-North train stations.

The mayor announced on Thursday a goal to build 500,000 housing units in the city to meet growing demand. The City reported the push includes 6,000 homes along new commuter rail stations.

The “Bronx Metro-North Plan” involves opening train stations by 2027 in Co-op City, Hunts Point, Morris Park, Parkchester and Van Nest. The new train stations are a component of the Penn Station Access project.

A “minimum” of 25 percent of the homes would be designated affordable, Adams said, keeping with city rules on new housing development.

The environmental review process for two rezonings around the planned train stations launched this week. Public hearings are scheduled to take place next year.

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Local officials praised the Bronx rezoning concept to the outlet. Some, however, expressed concern about having a lack of input in the plan or even being unaware of it prior to the mayor’s announcement.

Laying the plan out publicly may help the mayor’s office avoid controversies that have dogged previous Bronx rezonings. In October, a deal was reached for a rezoning at Bruckner Boulevard, after a year and a half of negotiations and protests.

Adams released his “Get Stuff Built” report on Thursday, which outlined 111 ways “the city’s administration of development is broken” and how it can be fixed. Adams estimated proposed changes could cut city agencies’ processing times in half.

The mayor’s Building and Land use Approval Streamlining Taskforce, aka BLAST, recommended the city accelerate pre-certification, which can take a developer two or three years to complete before starting the seven-month Uniform Land Use Review Procedure, or Ulurp; pre-certification has no set timeline.

— Holden Walter-Warner