NEW YORK : De Blasio Unveils Affordable Housing Initiative

[chris08876]

Queens Plaza/Court Square developers may be REQUIRED to build affordable units should rezoning occur

The Department of City Planning is likely to make it mandatory for developers to build affordable housing in the Court Square and Queens Plaza areas should it rezone the district.

The department is currently studying the area to determine whether it should upzone the district as a means to promote affordable housing as well as commercial activity—such as light manufacturing.

The agency is currently reviewing about 100 streets that include Queens Plaza (from Queensbridge Houses to Northern Boulevard) and parts of Court Square. It is also reviewing neighboring sections of Jackson Ave. and Northern Boulevard.

The concept of implementing a mandate requiring developers to include affordable units would be unique– since no other New York City neighborhood has done so, said John Young, the director of the Queens Office of City Planning. The idea is a departure from standard policy where developers are provided with “incentives” to build affordable units–such as allowing them to build slightly bigger buildings.

Therefore, while the Queens Plaza/Court Square proposal is likely make way for larger buildings, the change would also guarantee more affordable units.

“It would be a requirement that a portion [of the building] would have to be affordable,” said John Young, the director of the Queens office of City Planning, who is reviewing the concept.

Young said that the department will be having meetings with stakeholders this winter to discuss the concept–as well as other issues. Such stakeholders include members of community board 2, civic associations, cultural groups and the Long Island City Partnership, he said.

Young said that by late spring the department is likely to come up with the results of its analysis and would then present a preliminary proposal to stakeholders in summer.

He said by fall a proposal would must likely go out for public discussion.

Young said the study comes on the heels of Mayor Bill de Blasio’s Housing New York proposal, which aims to create or preserve some 200,000 units of affordable housing over the next 10 years.

Furthermore, the study was prompted by a letter sent out by Community Board 2 last year that claimed that sections of Long Island City had turned into the Gold Coast and that there was greater need for affordable housing.

When the area was rezoned in 2001 the planning department had hoped to create a significant business district as well as housing. However, the business area has not grown to a level that it had hoped—while pricey buildings have gone up at a fast clip.

===========================
Jan. 29
http://licpost.com/2015/01/29/queens...ezoning-occur/

[chris08876]

City tries to suit-proof its affordable-housing plan

The de Blasio administration is poring over a portion of its affordable-housing plan to ensure that it will hold up under legal scrutiny. The push comes at a time when mandatory inclusionary zoning policies designed to encourage more affordable-housing development have been battered by lawsuits in other parts of the country.

In California, for instance, most municipalities no longer require developers to include affordable units in rental buildings following a 2009 lawsuit charging the policy violated state law. Such an outcome here, where 70% of residents rent their homes and affordable units are increasingly scarce, could be disastrous. With that in mind, the administration is taking a close look at California as well as cases in states such as Idaho or Colorado.

"We are carefully considering the relevant legal issues in connection with each element of the program—many of which have been litigated in various jurisdictions throughout the country," a Department of City Planning spokeswoman said in a statement.

The administration's forthcoming mandatory policy will require a percentage of affordable apartments in exchange for any rezoning that grants a substantial increase in density, including throughout entire neighborhoods such as East New York, Brooklyn.

"We are confident that our program will withstand legal scrutiny," the spokeswoman said.

But because it will be the first of its kind in the state, legal experts are wondering whether the policy could, for example, eventually be challenged by invoking the Urstadt Law, which grants the power for rent regulation to Albany, rather than City Hall.

And while federal suits elsewhere have not been as successful as challenges to state law, there is a particular gray area still undecided that could impact the city's proposal. A portion of the U.S. constitution requires states and municipalities to show that zoning changes, among other policies, are in the public's best interest.

Just how far cities like the Big Apple must go to do that is not entirely clear. For that reason, many municipalities around the country are taking no chances and are drafting comprehensive reports to cover their bases.
"In any type of zoning amendment, coming up with a rational planning justification in the beginning can help offset constitutional challenges down the road," said Ross Moskowitz, a partner at law firm Stroock & Stroock & Lavan who specializes in real estate.

Lawsuits charging that mandatory inclusionary zoning amounts to a violation of the Fifth Amendment's protection against government seizure of property without adequate compensation have been largely unsuccessful. However, they haven't been ruled on definitively in a federal court, according to legal experts.

==================================
JANUARY 30, 2015
http://www.crainsnewyork.com/article...e-housing-plan

[mhays]

The biggest problem is that it adds cost for every non-subsidized unit. It does that (1) directly, and (2) indirectly by disincentivizing development.

In fact, it's a perfect recipe for raising rents on existing apartments by making them more scarce.

Is de Blasio in the pocket of landlords intentionally, or just unintentionally?

[chris08876]

This mayor is serious about cracking that demand issue.
========================


In 2nd Year, Mayor de Blasio Will Focus on Making Housing Denser and More Affordable

Mayor Bill de Blasio on Tuesday is set to declare housing as the focal point of his second year in office, unveiling a vision for an even denser yet more affordable New York City that will transform neighborhoods from East Harlem in Manhattan to Staten Island’s North Shore.

The mayor’s mission: to convince New Yorkers that his plan to build more, and build higher, can improve the quality of life for residents across all income levels, even as many have come to associate construction cranes and high-rise buildings with the out-of-reach opulence of the upper class.

In his second State of the City address, Mr. de Blasio plans to invoke the city’s post-World War II building boom, when large housing complexes like Stuyvesant Town offered shelter and security to middle- and working-class New Yorkers.

Officials said the mayor would announce new plans to rezone two more neighborhoods, East Harlem and Stapleton, Staten Island, to allow for taller and larger residential buildings. Mr. de Blasio intends to make affordable apartments a requirement, not an option, in those developments — along with four others across the city — and he will offer new protections for current tenants who fear being forced out by the changes.

The mayor also plans to call for the construction of 160,000 new market-rate apartments over the next decade, hoping that a larger supply of housing will help reduce rents more broadly.

To succeed, Mr. de Blasio — elected in part on a wave of anger over glittery developments approved by the administration of Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg — must confront knotty, emotionally charged questions about gentrification and the changing cityscape. Because affordable housing is built hand in hand with market-rate units, City Hall has already faced resistance in neighborhoods wary of change.

But the mayor, in the speech, plans to say that his administration is carving out a careful middle ground.

“We’re serious about having neighborhoods grow, but we’re also really serious about making sure communities that are there have the right to stay there,” Alicia Glen, the city’s deputy mayor for housing and economic development, said in an interview.

“Density doesn’t have to be a bad word,” Ms. Glen added. “We want to explain the benefits of density, and why density is not, per se, a scary thing.”

To bolster that effort, the de Blasio administration will invest $36 million in legal services for tenants in newly rezoned neighborhoods. The idea, mayoral aides say, is to help residents fight harassment by landlords, who might be eager to eject tenants to take advantage of the higher rents that often accompany a rezoning.

[...]

The addition of 160,000 market-rate units — on top of the 200,000 affordable units that Mr. de Blasio has pledged to build or preserve in the next decade — is an attempt to correct “a serious supply-and-demand imbalance,” Ms. Glen said.

=================================
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/03/ny...able.html?_r=0

[yankeesfan1000]

While his goal of market rate units is nice, he's not addressing the fundamental aspect which makes more housing possible, which is mass transit. The areas of Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx which are seeing the highest year to year rent increases have good mass transit connectivity. Expanding the subway system in the outer boroughs would do wonders to help address the issue of housing in this city. Not surprisingly though, he's decided to take the easy route, which is to just mandate more affordable housing, and making up a number of market rate units that are going to get built.

[bassuracity]

we will see how it goes

[599GTO]

Improving subway access in far-flung outer-borough neighborhoods seems like a more logical long-term plan than this affordable housing nonsense. There are lots of already affordable areas in South Brooklyn and Bronx. Make them more visually appealing and increase transit. Then the developers will come. The end.

[C.]

Originally Posted by 599GTO

Improving subway access in far-flung outer-borough neighborhoods seems like a more logical long-term plan than this affordable housing nonsense. There are lots of already affordable areas in South Brooklyn and Bronx. Make them more visually appealing and increase transit. Then the developers will come. The end.

We need both. Also, I'm not sure the political will exists for wide scale subway construction. Number 1 priority right now is the Second Avenue Subway phase II and maybe the 7 line extension in NJ. I would love to see subways expanded to every nook and cranny in the city, but it doesn't seem to likely currently. Changing zoning to allow for higher density development is a much easier option.

[chris08876]

What may help is this extra affordable housing and influx of new residents.

Ferry System Expanded Diagrams: http://www.scribd.com/doc/254611698/...-Ferry-Service

I posted extra info in the transportation section, but in general, this should help alleviate some of the stress on the train system due to new residents along the East River in Queens/Brooklyn. Even the Bronx.

[NYguy]

Bloomberg pushed the Hudson Yards, it looks like de Blasio will be the one to finally give Sunnyside Yards a push. We'll see what comes of it...


http://observer.com/2015/02/de-blasi...-plan-details/

De Blasio Heralds Sunnyside Yards as Next Stuy-Town, Unveils Other Housing Details





By Kim Velsey
02/03/15

Mayor Bill de Blasio announced at the State of the City address this morning that he intends to build 11,250 affordable housing units at Sunnyside Yards—the same as the number as at Stuy-Town and Peter Cooper Village. At 200 acres, Sunnyside Yards is one of the largest undeveloped parcels in New York City, but one that presents myriad difficulties to developers as it remains an active rail yard in use by several train companies.

Mr. de Blasio compared the Sunnyside Yards plan to post-war affordable housing projects like Starrett City and Co-op City and said that it would be a “a game-changer” with enough affordable housing for “over 30,000 New Yorkers.” And unlike Stuy-Town, he said, “we’re going to make sure that affordable housing at Sunnyside Yards stays affordable.”

Mr. de Blasio said that rail tracks could be placed underground such that housing could be built on top—a process which is being undertaken at Hudson Yards, but in that case with the financial backing of developers eager to cash in on commercial rents—though he admitted that “some parts could more easily handle larger buildings being built there and some could not.”

It was yet another ambitious facet in Mr. de Blasio’s very ambitious affordable housing plan to build or preserve 200,000 units within the next decade and comes with surprisingly precise details given the nascent stage of the process.

The city is partnering with Amtrak, which owns the yards, and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, to conduct a feasibility study, Alicia Glen, deputy mayor for housing and economic development, told reporters after the mayor’s speech, which she called the first step in seeing if such a project could be completed.

The governor’s office, meanwhile, was critical of the announcement, writing in a statement that “the MTA uses Sunnyside Yards as an important facility for our transportation system, and it is not available for any other use in the near term. The State and the MTA are studying several potential future uses of the site from a long term planning prospective.”

The Mayor also identified two new neighborhoods—East Harlem and Stapleton, Staten Island—that his administration plans to target for denser residential development and mandatory inclusionary zoning. In those areas developers would need to include affordable housing in projects in order to unlock density bonuses. East Harlem and Stapleton join the list of neighborhoods that have been targeted for such development, which include East New York, Long Island City, Flushing West, and the Jerome Avenue Corridor in the Bronx.

Mr. de Blasio called his approach to affordable housing “fundamentally different” than his predecessors’, who presided over a city where “developers wrote their own rules… as the city expanded growth was driven by developer’s bottom line,” resulting in multi-million dollar homes that drove up rents without offering a corresponding affordability component. Without bold action now, he said, the city risked taking on the aspects of a gated community.

However, details of the program—specifically, affordability percentages and incentive packages—have yet to be revealed. Ms. Glen said the City Planning Commission is planning to release details in the spring, but the plan “will not be one size fits all.” And the example Mr. de Blasio held up during his speech—Astoria Cove, which is slated to be 27 percent affordable—illustrates the difficulties of harnessing the private market, where developers are, if not driven by the bottom line, then still beholden to it, in order to enact broad social change. The city agreed to kick in money from its capital budgets to increase the affordability of that project from 25 to 27 percent. It may also help to pay for ferry service at the transit-challenged site. Even so, many affordability advocates alleged that the plan was but a minor improvement from the 80/20 ratio of the Bloomberg era.

The mayor also called for the construction of an additional 160,000 new market-rate units, to help offset demand, which may well produce trepidation in many, if not all, of the neighborhoods slated for mandatory inclusionary rezoning. To offset those fears—and perhaps in an acknowledgement that they are based in reality—the mayor has set aside $36 million for free legal representation in housing court available to all tenants in rezoned neighborhoods, tripling the city’s investment in free legal services for tenants.

The Real Estate Board of New York praised the Mayor’s focus on affordable housing in a statement released this afternoon: “Building more new market rate and affordable housing, and preserving and enhancing our current inventory of affordable housing is the only way to address our decades-long housing shortage. Without such bold initiatives, the City’s housing market will tighten further and become even more expensive. Our industry stands ready to work with the Mayor and other stakeholders to put shovels in the ground and cranes in the sky to tackle this important goal,” the statement read.

Tenant and affordable housing groups were also supportive; the New York State Association for Affordable Housing praised the Mayor “for making affordable housing his number one priority. The record number of homeless families on our streets and applications to our housing lotteries are proof that rising rents and stagnant wages are forcing New Yorkers to make impossible choices in their everyday lives.”

The question, of course, is whether even with the co-operation of Albany, the mayor’s housing plan can preserve what he identified as the good elements of gentrification—jobs, amenities, safer streets—with the displacement that has followed in their wake.

“In the past we said there was nothing you could do about it—you can either have a safe, clean neighborhood or a neighborhood you can afford, but you can’t have a safe clean neighborhood you can afford,” said Mr. de Blasio. “We believe that’s a false choice… That false choice makes no sense for New York City.”

[NYguy]

http://www.rew-online.com/2015/02/03...ng-to-do-list/

Bold de Blasio adds 160,000 units to housing ‘to do’ list


By Dan Orlando
February 3, 2014

The Real Estate Board of New York yesterday (Tuesday) applauded Mayor de Blasio’s call to strengthen his affordable housing plan by a further 160,000 units.

Calling the decision “bold,ˮ REBNY president Steve Spinola said the mayor’s call for an additional 160,000 market-rate units, above and beyond the 200,000 affordable units the administration plans to build or preserve over the next decade, “will go a long way to keeping New York the greatest city in the world in which to live, work, and raise a family.”

De Blasio began his campaign by promising the original 200,000 units of affordable living space, but Tuesday’s demand for a new wave of market rate properties is an answer to the dwindling supply and surging prices that face the city’s residential marketplace.

“Building more new market rate and affordable housing, and preserving and enhancing our current inventory of affordable housing is the only way to address our decades-long housing shortage,” said Spinola.

During his address, de Blasio warned, “If we fail to be a city for everyone, we risk losing what makes New York, New York. And nothing more clearly expresses the inequality gap — the opportunity gap — than the soaring cost of housing.ˮ

Kathryn Wylde, president & CEO of the Partnership for New York City, commented, “The high volume of affordable housing production achieved during the Koch era was the result of robust public-private partnerships.

“A collaborative approach is even more important today since city government has little inventory of cheap land and construction costs have skyrocketed. While it was not explicit in the Mayor’s speech, I trust his administration understands that forging partnerships with the development and financial industries is the only way to accomplish his housing goals.”

At the time of the most recent census (2012), the median household income amongst Manhattan residence stood at just under $67,000 per year. The average rents for the borough eclipsed $3,000 per month.

Up against slightly more modest rents, Brooklyn and Queens saw median household incomes of $44,850 and $54,373 respectively.

The highest household income belonged to the suburban Staten Island, which barely eclipsed $70,000 per year.

[b][color=blue]“Without such bold initiatives, the City’s housing market will tighten further and become even more expensive,” said Spinola. “Our industry stands ready to work with the mayor and other stakeholders to put shovels in the ground and cranes in the sky to tackle this important goal.”[/color[p.b[

http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/e...icle-1.2102343

Sunnyside up for de Blasio
Mayor's State of the City speech offers big, ambitious plans for much-needed housing construction


Editorial
February 4, 2014

Bill the Builder on Tuesday unfurled housing plans faster than the forces of gentrification, more powerful than not-in-my-backyard naysayers, and able to leap ultra-luxury towers in a single bound.

Kudos to Mayor de Blasio for displaying superheroic ambitions in his State of the City address.

With New York in desperate need of affordable housing, the mayor says he’ll deliver big-time through targeted rezonings, mandates on real estate developers and some major building projects.

The biggest of de Blasio’s big deals called for creating 11,250 units of affordable housing on a deck to be built over the 200-acre Long Island Rail Road and Amtrak railyards in Queens.

Let’s hope his other ideas get off to a surer start.

Gov. Cuomo’s office shot down the mayor’s “game-changer,” with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority placing the Sunnyside Yards off limits because they serve as a staging area for construction of an East Side tunnel for the LIRR.

The yards could be a prime development site.

In December, we urged de Blasio and Cuomo to delve into a proposal by former Bloomberg deputy mayor Dan Doctoroff and former city planner Vishaan Chakrabarti of SHoP Architects.

They concluded building a deck over the tracks for housing would be prohibitively expensive but could be feasible for a convention facility.

Thus, they called for moving the Javits Center to Queens and unlocking the value of its real estate on Manhattan’s West Side to build 25,000 units of housing, including 10,000 affordable apartments, there and in Sunnyside.

De Blasio brushed past that concept, perhaps because it came from Bloomberg alumni. Similarly, Cuomo may have objected to de Blasio’s notions because they stole a march on his own consideration of the railyard’s future.

Come on, folks. Take a coordinated look at building over the Sunnyside Yards. And let’s also focus on another 200-acre tract of underutilized land in Queens: Aqueduct Race Track.

Except for a gambling casino, the place is derelict. Here’s what to do: Move the horses to Belmont, a mere eight miles away, and build housing at Aqueduct. As long ago as 1994, the Planning Department envisioned 2,300 low-rise units on the track property.

The rest of de Blasio’s housing program seemed far more grounded.

He added East Harlem and Stapleton on Staten Island to neighborhoods that would be rezoned to spur development on the proviso that projects deliver affordable housing. Great.

De Blasio also pledged to invest $200 million to pave the way for 4,000 housing units on the South Bronx waterfront, as well as to use blighted land in the Rockaways for construction. Bravo.

But building big takes no small time. The laborious approval process for the first of more than a dozen rezonings, in East New York, is barely underway. De Blasio needs to get a move on.

http://www.crainsnewyork.com/article...ules-not-yours

The mayor also had some good news for developers: He pledged to cut red tape at the Department of Buildings, add or preserve 160,000 market-rate units, expand the city's modest network of ferries in 2017 and create 20 bus-rapid-transit routes in the next four years.

The city will fund $55 million in capital costs for the new ferry routes and subsidize their operation so commuters would pay no more than the cost of a subway ride, he claimed. The economics of the plan are sure to be questioned, as current ferry fares are several times the price of a MetroCard swipe even with the city providing subsidies that are high on a per-ride basis.

Mr. de Blasio also reaffirmed that he would push for taller buildings in certain areas to help meet his goal of creating 80,000 affordable apartments over 10 years (twice the average annual rate of the past 25 years, the mayor noted). Such proposals are typically met with community opposition in the outer boroughs, although popular demand for affordability can overcome it.

Mr. de Blasio tried to reassure New Yorkers who dislike building shadows and fear gentrification and overcrowding. "We are not embarking on a mission to build towering skyscrapers where they don't belong," he said. "We have a duty to protect and preserve the culture and character of our neighborhoods, and we will do so."

[NYguy]

http://observer.com/2015/02/de-blasi...ards-proposal/

De Blasio Thinks There’s a ‘Way Forward’ for Sunnyside Yards Proposal

By Jillian Jorgensen
02/04/15

Gov. Andrew Cuomo may not be on board with Mayor Bill de Blasio’s plan to turn a railyard in Queens into a sweeping affordable housing development—but Mr. de Blasio wasn’t letting that put a damper on his plans today.

“I think we’re going to find a way forward here,” Mr. de Blasio told WNYC’s Brian Lehrer this morning.

Yesterday in his State of the City address, Mr. de Blasio laid out plans envisioning a development called “Sunnyside Yards,” which would include more than 11,000 affordable apartments built in the image of Stuy Town and Peter Cooper Village. The mayor proposed building above the more than 200-acre working railyard, where both Amtrak and the MTA have operations.

Mr. Cuomo almost immediately threw cold water on the plan. In a statement, his spokeswoman Melissa DeRosa said the yard was not available due to its use by the MTA, state-run agency.

“The MTA uses Sunnyside Yards as an important facility for our transportation system, and it is not available for any other use in the near term. The State and the MTA are studying several potential future uses of the site from a long term planning perspective,” she said.

But Amtrak owns most of the site—150 acres—and the national railroad said yesterday it was open to developing above the property.

“Amtrak has begun conceptualizing future opportunities for development over our 150 acre Sunnyside Yards property. We are working with the City and others to understand what potential exists for this incredibly unique site and recognize and support the Mayor’s strong interest in advancing affordable housing as part of any major new development,” Amtrak said in a statement.

And today, Mr. de Blasio noted the city would own the air rights above the rail yard.

“The rail yards have to be there, no question about it, they have to be there. But we think we can have them there…but also get a lot done in terms of affordable housing and other things that the city needs,” Mr. de Blasio said.

.....Mr. de Blasio said big projects were what the city needed.

“Leaders are supposed to lead. We’re supposed to point a way,” he said.

Some people want development to happen only in small-scale developments, as opposed to the massive amount of mixed low- and high-rise housing he’s proposed for Sunnyside Yards. But if the models of Peter Cooper Village and Stuy Town worked before, and the city has an opportunity to target development above a massive parcel, it should try those models again.

“Why on earth would we not grab that opportunity? So I’m going to be very, very focused on this,” he said.

http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/h...icle-1.2103652

De Blasio’s bold building bet
To expand the ladder of opportunity, stretch the city skyward


February 4, 2015
BY HARRY SIEGEL

Tuesday, de Blasio pointed as a model to the housing plan of Mayor Ed Koch, who said then “we’re creating more than just apartments — we’re re-creating neighborhoods.” But Koch was able to do that because many parts of the city had hollowed out, leaving empty spaces and buildings.

Today, New York is bursting at the seams and land is so scarce that one big part of de Blasio’s plan involves a multi-billion-dollar proposal — that Gov. Cuomo has already poured cold water on — to cover the huge rail yard in Sunnyside and then entice private developers to create a neighborhood with 11,250 units of affordable housing.

Beyond Sunnyside, the core of his plan involves zoning changes allowing bigger new buildings in various pockets of the city — and requiring developers to provide permanently affordable new housing (along with market-rate units) in exchange for the extra height.

That’s a jackpot — assuming things get built. But before they put up seven or eight figures, developers have to be confident that the numbers will add up — that the increased development rights (along with government subsidies, especially in places like East New York) will cover the cost of the below-market units.

For the city, there’s little downside: If nothing gets built in some places, we’re no worse off than now. And where buildings do go up, de Blasio will have proven he can collect more affordable housing eggs without killing the development goose. And that we can get new market-rate housing, and affordable units along with them, outside the confines of Mayor Bloomberg’s luxury city.

The New York Times this week labeled de Blasio’s approach “Bloombergism with a twist,” as — like his predecessor — the new mayor banks on private development to pay for his promise of new affordable housing. The twist: De Blasio would do much more to ensure construction benefits current residents, not just those drawn in as so-called luxury buildings rise and coffee houses and craft beer bars spring up like mushrooms in their shadows.

I wrote last year that “the simple way out of this Chinese finger trap, where the more subsidized housing we have, the more outrageously expensive it gets for everyone not lucky enough to have it, is (building up) — an approach largely favored by an unlikely coalition of developers, trade unionists and affordable housing advocates.”

In short, to convince developers they can still profit while giving a bigger cut of potential profits to New Yorkers lucky enough to win the affordable housing lottery, and to increase supply enough to help relieve the pressure on the rest of us. And to convince New Yorkers already in the places he’s aiming to transform that years of construction is in their interests.

That’s a tough sell after a 50-year cycle in which, to put it crudely, residents who hung on or moved in and fought to improve neighborhoods damaged by white flight, then found themselves pushed out by white influx as the city became more attractive.

Taking the gentrification bull by the horns, de Blasio credited two decades of declining crime with drawing people to the city, bringing with them “jobs and amenities, more activities, safer streets. The problem comes when we reach the tipping point . . . when New Yorkers get priced out of their own neighborhoods.”

Who could disagree? But let’s be honest: As long as people want to be here, someone will always be pricing someone else out . And any plan for a better future will encounter fierce resistance from people who like where they live now, and can afford it.

As much as I like de Blasio’s vision, I wouldn’t trade years of noisy construction intended to dramatically change my corner of Brooklyn to provide lower rents in a few years, mostly to people who aren’t even here yet. Would you?

Good luck, Mr. Mayor.

[NYguy]

If you want to dig into the first of de Blasio's neighborhood rezonings, here it is...

East New York

http://www.nyc.gov/html/dcp/pdf/env_...raft_scope.pdf

[chris08876]

Very long article but it talks about the progressive struggle against affordable housing, and the steps that the city must take: http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/2...dable-housing#

IF you can't read it, use incognito mode on chrome. It gets past the pay wall. (Ctrl + shift + n)

[chris08876]

Originally Posted by NYguy

If you want to dig into the first of de Blasio's neighborhood rezonings, here it is...

East New York

http://www.nyc.gov/html/dcp/pdf/env_...raft_scope.pdf

Extra Info / Summary on the Rezoning (E. NY):

And now, the Department of City planning has posted documents related to the rezoning, which outline the exact zoning designations, along with projections for how the neighborhood would grow if the proposal is enacted into law.

The rezoning would result in a net increase of nearly 7,000 housing units by 2030, bringing the neighborhood closer to its 1960 population peak of 66,000 residents, up from just 48,000 today. It would also allow the construction of nearly a million extra square feet of commercial space, among other uses. The documents also presume passage of a zoning text amendment exempting subsidized housing units from the city’s onerous parking requirements, and potentially allowing builders to opt out of providing parking for their market-rate units as well, if and when they ever pencil out.

East New York’s rezoning would apply to two distinct neighborhoods – about a dozen blocks in Ocean Hill west of Broadway Junction, and the main portion of East New York and Cypress Hills to the east, bounded generally by Sheffield Avenue to the west, Lincoln Avenue to the east, Fulton Street to the north and Pitkin Avenue to the south.

The move would make room for an undisclosed amount of new development (Vicki Been, when she was at NYU, kept track of the net effects of rezonings during the Bloomberg years, but Amanda Burden’s office did not, and we’re not sure the Department of City Planning under Carl Weisbrod will either), however the Department of City Planning did sketch out what they expect to actually be built as a result.

Without the rezoning, the city expects that only 550 new homes would be built between now and 2030, compared with 7,250 with the rezoning – a net increase of around 7 million square feet of housing. Community facility space would grow by 536,000 square feet rather than 157,000, while the total amount of new commercial space (largely retail) would grow by 1.26 million square feet rather than 669,000 square feet under the current zoning. Industrial space would increase by 153,000 square feet, compared to 126,000 without the rezoning.

Meanwhile, the rezoning would result in 137,000 fewer square feet of auto-related space, 98,000 square feet less of hotel space, and 73,000 square feet less of warehouse and storage space.

The environmental review also assumes that minimum parking requirements, currently in effect for all but the smallest new buildings outside of the Manhattan core and Long Island City (and, to a lesser extent, downtown Brooklyn), would be reformed. The documents don’t go much into detail (there’s also no detail about the inclusionary zoning provisions, other than that it would be mandatory), but they do say that a proposed zoning text amendment “would eliminate off-street parking requirements for low-income housing or Inclusionary Housing within areas that fall within a ‘Transit Zone’,” marked by transit access and low car ownership rates, but without any more specifics.

============================
http://www.yimbynews.com/2015/02/cit...d-by-2030.html

[chris08876]

Info on Rentals for 2016 and on; more in reference*:

With new rental projects becoming harder and harder for developers to pencil out in Manhattan as the price of land and construction rises, it would make sense to assume that rental inventory would be shrinking. In reality, new rental inventory is expected to grow over the next two years, but the trend is not forecast to last much beyond that time frame.

The rental market in Manhattan south of 96th Street is projected to expand through 2016 as the pipeline of projects developed over the past several years comes to market.

The prime area of the city is projected to see a roughly 25 percent uptick in new rental apartments this year to 4,152 units (up from last year’s number of 3,313) and then more than double in 2016 to almost 8,800 units, according to the brokerage Citi Habitats.

For developers and landlords the near-term onrush could give way to concerns of a glut, but Jim Hedden, chief development officer for Rose Associates, said he thinks demand is strong enough to offset the additions on the supply side.

“Is it staggering? I look at some studies and it doesn’t scare me,” said, Hedden, who is bringing one of Manhattan’s largest rental developments to market this year, 70 Pine Street.
“As a rental guy, I think [in 2015 and 2016] you’re going to see the pipeline deals from ’13 and ’14 and it’s going to fall off after that. There’s just no land available and everything is priced for condos.”

In fact, new inventory is expected to reverse course in 2017 and decline 14 percent to 7,540 apartments, according to the brokerage’s projections. And the culprit, industry pros say, is the sky-high prices development sites are fetching these days that almost necessitate condos as opposed to rentals.

In the short term, the increase this year is largely the result of a couple of mega-projects, most notably the Moinian Group’s 1,174-unit 605 West 42nd Street, the Durst Organization’s 709-unit “pyramid” on West 57th Street and Rose Associates’ aforementioned 70 Pine Street, which will deliver 644 units.

[...]

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*Reference/Long Article: http://therealdeal.com/issues_articl...n-rental-boom/

[chris08876]

NYC in danger of becoming “a gated community”

Rent costs are a severe burden for a third of New Yorkers, and the city is at risk of becoming a gated community unless it can solve its affordability crisis, housing experts said at a conference this morning.

“The number one expense for New Yorkers,” said Jack Nyman, executive director of the Steven L. Newman Real Estate Institute and the organizer of the Implementing Affordable: New York’s Affordable Housing Crisis conference, said on Wednesday, “is living.”

Addressing a packed conference room at Baruch College — across the street from where, a fortnight ago, Mayor Bill de Blasio delivered his state of the city address — Nyman said that New York City is in danger of losing its character. Referring to the 70,000 people who applied for 38 affordable units in Williamsburg in December, Nyman said that the city is at risk of becoming “a gated community.”

NYC Department of Housing Preservation and Development Commissioner Vicki Been, the keynote speaker at the conference, said that 56 percent of New Yorkers are “rent-burdened,” and for one-third of New Yorkers, the problems were severe.

“For these families, the affordable housing crisis is not an abstraction,” she added.

The de Blasio administration’s plan to tackle the issue will require $8.2 billion in city capital and funds, Been said, adding that the city already invested $400 million in 2014 alone. That $400 million had also been used to leverage private investments at a ratio of 8:1, she said.

HPD set a goal of financing 16,000 affordable units last year — a goal it exceeded by almost 1,400 units, Been, formerly the director of NYU’s Furman Center, said. “Our progress to date shows that our goals are not only ambitious, but doable,” she said. “They’re bold, not crazy.” De Blasio has called for the city to ramp up new construction. To act on this, Been said that the HPD is “looking high and low across the five boroughs for land on which to build. “We’re looking for land wherever it is, under every railroad track” she said. But, “we’re not just plopping down buildings,” she said. “We’re also building neighborhoods.”

To that end, HPD has formed a new office, the Office of Neighborhood Strategies, which deputy HPD commissioner Daniel Hernandez said was dealing with neighborhood residents’ concerns of displacement in the face of increased density. The HPD has taken some stick for its initial forays into Brooklyn’s East New York neighborhood, some residents of which see the city’s development efforts as a mechanism of gentrification. “Getting into neighborhoods, we’re not great at,” Hernandez acknowledged. “But we’re great about getting the word out.” “The concerns aren’t about housing,” another panelist, Howard Slatkin, deputy executive director of strategic planning for the Department of City Planning, added. “It’s about the implication of the housing.” Nyman was cautiously optimistic about New York’s ability to tackle the affordability crisis. “The mayor is focusing his administration to preserve affordable housing as a precious component of this city,” he told The Real Deal. “Will the goal, if it is met, be effective at bridging the gap?” he asked, referring to the mayor’s 200,000 number. “Only time will tell.”

==================================
http://therealdeal.com/blog/2015/02/...ted-community/

[antinimby]

^ Those conferences are pretty worthless. Telling us what most already know and that is housing is expensive in the city. They should instead come right out and tell us what are the causes and the things the city can do about it.

[chris08876]

Some info on property purchases and investment in NYC from the Chinese:

• Video Link

CCTV America interviewed Publisher of The Real Deal, Amir Korangy regarding New York City’s impact on the national housing market, as well as the broader U.S. economy and global housing market.

* Also talking about how NYC is somewhat bubble proof for the time being. The city is the "swiss bank account" of the global economy.

* Mentions some projects (waldorf, conversion, etc) and some other factors which are leading to much of the investment now and down the line.

[NYguy]

http://www.crainsnewyork.com/article...tier-buildings

City aims for more affordable, less ugly housing
Under proposed new rules, bland boxes could be replaced by more varied, prewar ones. The hitch is that they could also be taller.


BY JOE ANUTA
FEBRUARY 20, 2015

The city released a sweeping proposal Friday that would dramatically alter the way buildings look in New York City, possibly ushering in a new generation of buildings that look more like the varied structures of yore while making it easier and cheaper to create affordable housing units.

The changes will allow developers to build several stories taller than current norms in some cases, as long as the overall square footage is held steady. In others, the new rules would give developers more flexibility with the shape of a property's façade, all while maintaining existing square-footage limits.

The proposal, which must go through the labyrinthine public review process, is one of the biggest shifts to zoning laws that govern the shape of buildings since 1987, when the code was last updated. The guiding idea is to give developers more flexibility on what their building will look like and what they can put in it, rather than literally forcing them into a box.

"I am very pleased to note the release of several proposed amendments to the zoning resolution that will, if enacted, make it easier and less expensive to build affordable housing in the city," said Carl Weisbrod, director of the Department of City Planning.

The problem that the city is hoping to resolve is that as construction methods have changed, zoning regulations have not kept pace. And it has become more difficult for architects and developers to squeeze all of the residential square footage they are allowed into a building’s shape, which is strictly governed by these laws. As a result, architects have been forced to shrink ceiling heights or excise entire floors from the designs. In many cases, developers end up building monolithic boxes to ensure everything fits.
And in situations where developers are given the option to build bigger if affordable apartments are included, the height restrictions have been too short to fit everything into the building, and have caused many to turn down the deal and build only market-rate.

The added height in many neighborhoods is sure to rankle anti-development groups across the city. In mid- to high-density areas, the additional allowance will usher in a generation of buildings up to 15 feet taller than previous limits.

What's more, in cases where developers are allowed to build bigger buildings in return for providing affordable or senior housing, the allowances could lead to as much as four stories of extra height in high-density neighborhoods.

The city’s aim is to give builders and architects the ability to return to higher ceiling heights and varied building shapes common in prewar buildings on the Upper West Side or the Art Deco buildings along the Grand Concourse in the Bronx. Some of the city’s most prominent architects were quick to hail the de Blasio administration's efforts to foster more interesting and varied properties.

"As construction technology and market expectations have changed, the regulatory environment pertaining to building envelope and massing, along with parking requirements, needs to be aggressively reconsidered and revised," said Rick Bell, head of the American Institute of Architects' New York chapter. "We look forward to seeing the outline of how this can happen."

The modified zoning regulations would make it easier to build senior housing more efficiently and would eliminate parking requirements for affordable-housing developments near transit hubs, since residents of such buildings typically don't own cars, and the spaces are expensive to build.

Here's a look...
http://www.scribd.com/doc/256394511/...-Affordability