Zohran Mamdani Picks Next City Planning Director

Dan Garodnick’s successor at the Department of City Planning and the City Planning Commission has been selected.

Mayor Zohran Mamdani is naming Sideya Sherman to the top posts at the two organizations, The City reported. Sherman recently served as the commissioner of the Mayor’s Office of Equity and Racial Justice during Eric Adams’ administration.

“As I step into this role, I see it as an opportunity to really continue systems-level work, to also really champion and help advance the mayor’s focus on affordability and making sure that New York remains a city that’s diverse and that people can stay in and live in and thrive in,” Sherman told the publication.

“Sideya Sherman understands that urban planning is about whether working people can afford to stay in the neighborhoods they call home,” Mamdani added in a statement.

Sherman’s experience also includes heading up the Task Force on Racial Inclusion and Equity, as well as more than a decade with NYCHA.

DCP is a critical agency for the city’s real estate, in charge of overseeing land use regulations and sparking growth across a diverse spectrum of neighborhoods. The position is instrumental for development plans in the city, particularly in the realm of affordable housing. It’s also a key for Mamdani, who promised to construct 200,000 affordable units in the next decade.

Sherman is taking over for Garodnick, who resigned from city government last month, reportedly after being passed over for a deputy mayorship in the Mamdani administration.

Former Mayor Adams appointed Garodnick as director of the Department of City Planning and chair of the City Planning Commission in 2022. In the subsequent years, he guided several of Adams’ biggest housing policies, including the passage of the City of Yes and the Midtown South rezoning.

Other key administration housing picks include Dina Levy as commissioner of the Department of Housing Preservation and Development and Leila Bozorg as deputy mayor of housing and planning.

— Holden Walter-Warner