The City of Yes for Housing Opportunity is both a modest proposal and the most significant zoning change in decades.
That’s a rhetorically difficult case to make, but it is one the Adams administration laid out on Monday. They said the text amendment is critical and needed, but would not create too much housing. At most, it would lead to the construction of a fraction of the 500,000 homes the mayor has set out to build over the next decade.
During the first of two hearings on the text amendment on Monday, City Council members repeatedly asked about a provision that would eliminate minimums for off-street parking in new housing construction. Some expressed a desire to keep such parking mandates in transit deserts.
Members also repeatedly expressed concern for the strain more housing would put on city sewers and other infrastructure.
Department of City Planning Director Dan Garodnick said he was confident developers in car- dependent areas would continue to build parking to meet demand. He also said that while the city’s infrastructure needs are significant, the addition of density through City of Yes was too incremental to cause adverse effects. In other words: Yes, the city desperately needs to invest in infrastructure upgrades, but that doesn’t mean it shouldn’t also build housing.
If this hearing is any indication, City Council members will look to maintain some parking mandates and try to squeeze infrastructure capital commitments from City Hall before approving City of Yes. They may also ask for deeper affordability requirements as part of the Universal Affordability Preference program, which will not thrill developers who already view UAP as an inferior replacement for Voluntary Inclusionary Housing.
A recurring issue with debates over housing is disentangling genuine concerns from attempts to just block new housing in a community. The sanctity of “neighborhood character” can be a thinly veiled cover for racially and socioeconomically-driven desires to exclude. But it can be harder to dismiss concerns about infrastructure when locals can point to the various ways their sewer system will be overextended.
The question remains: What changes can the City Council make that will address concerns laid out on Monday, without undermining what modest progress City of Yes can make in addressing the city’s housing shortage?
What we’re thinking about: What will happen to the Chrysler Building? Send a note to kathryn@therealdeal.com.
A thing we’ve learned: Rentbrella is an umbrella sharing company that sort of works like Citi Bike: You use an app to find an umbrella “station,” grab an umbrella and then use the app to find the nearest station to return it.
Elsewhere in New York…
— After facing heavy pushback, Mayor Eric Adams agreed to reverse course on a policy that required elected officials to fill out an online form in order to interact with the administration, including agency heads, Gothamist reports. The decision came after Brooklyn Council member Lincoln Restler proposed a veto-proof bill to block the policy.
— Jury selection began Monday for the trial of Daniel Penny on charges of manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide, NBC News reports. Penny was charged in the death of Jordan Neely, who prosecutors say died after Penny held him in a chokehold for six minutes.
— Jury selection began Monday for the trial of Daniel Penny on charges of manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide, NBC News reports. Penny was charged in the death of Jordan Neely, who prosecutors say died after Penny held him in a chokehold for six minutes on the subway.
— The Hudson Yards sculpture known as the Vessel will reopen Monday with new safety features, including floor-to-ceiling steel mesh barriers installed on the upper sections, Associated Press reports. The attraction was closed in 2021 after a number of suicides at the site.
Closing Time
Residential: The priciest residential sale Monday was $18.8 million at 430 East 58th Street. The Sutton Tower condo unit is 4,600 square feet and is a sponsor sale by Corcoran’s Sunshine Marketing Group, who sold the property for 10 percent below the listing price.
Commercial: The largest commercial sale of the day was $202.5 million at 80 Dekalb Avenue. The downtown Brooklyn rental tower was sold by KKR to Atlas Capital Group two years after the seller paid $190 million for the 365-unit building. JLL had the listing, per reports.
New to the Market: The highest price for a residential property hitting the market was $26.8 million for a single-family residence at 46 East 66th Street. The Lenox Hill townhouse is 8,200 square feet and sold in 2019 for $9 million less. The Corcoran Group’s Deborah Kern has the listing.
Breaking Ground: The largest new building application filed was 100,200 square feet at 264-25 76 Avenue in Queens for a construction of a new three-story Behavioral Health Pavilion at Northwell Health LIJ Medical Center. The applicant on file is Daniel Lutz of HDR Architecture & Engineering. – Joseph Jungermann