NYC Council agrees housing crisis needs a fix, but many members question Mayor Adams’ plan

New York City’s 51 councilmembers generally agree that the Big Apple has a serious housing problem, but many of them are publicly skeptical of Mayor Eric Adams’ signature plan to address the shortage.

Councilmembers across the political spectrum took turns grilling the city’s top planning official at an hourslong hearing on Monday on Adams’ sweeping “City of Yes” proposal, which would change local zoning rules to fuel new housing development across the five boroughs. Those same members will cast decisive votes on the proposal later this year.

Throughout the hearing, City Planning Director Dan Garodnick responded to concerns over the plan’s potential impact on individual neighborhoods, the threat opponents say it poses to street parking, and the amount of affordable homes it would actually create.

Garodnick in turn described the proposal as “the most pro-housing policy in the history of New York City zoning." The committee hearing was one of two taking place this week, with everyday New Yorkers invited to sound off at a second session on Tuesday.

The City of Yes plan tweaks zoning restrictions citywide to allow for more development to help alleviate the city’s dire housing shortage. Just 1.4% of apartments were empty and available to rent last year, with the rate plunging below 1% for lower-cost units, according to the city’s most recent housing survey.

“It’s the first time a mayoral administration is taking action to create new housing in every neighborhood, from the lowest density to the highest density,” Garodnick said.

Adams' plan would specifically allow owners of one- and two-family homes to add an extra unit on their lots, permit slightly larger apartment buildings along commercial strips and near transit stations, and ease the conversion of empty office buildings into housing. The proposal includes a provision allowing developers to build 20% bigger if they cap rents for those additional units for low- and middle-income tenants.

The Department of City Planning estimates the various changes could fuel the creation of up to 108,000 new units over the next 15 years.

The Council will decide the fate of the plan under the city’s land-use review process, which requires a majority vote by the legislative body to enact zoning changes. Proposals affecting every district at once — as the City of Yes plan does — are relatively rare but give every member a chance to use their leverage to amend the plan or extract concessions.

Many councilmembers are taking a measured approach to Adams' pitch, with left-leaning lawmakers questioning how the city will encourage or even mandate affordable housing development if the proposal passes. Their comments on Monday echoed the stance of Council Speaker Adrienne Adams, who has pledged to release a “housing action plan” to coincide with the zoning changes.

“Some of these reforms make a lot of sense,” said Bronx Councilmember Kevin Riley, chair of the Council's subcommittee on zoning and franchises. “The problem is that the proposal doesn’t identify the specific housing needs that different types of neighborhoods have.”

City data demonstrates how new affordable housing development has disproportionately occurred in just a handful of Council districts over the past decade. The statistics, analyzed by the organization New York Housing Conference, show Staten Island's three Council districts have produced less than 1,000 units of city-funded affordable housing since the start of 2014, with most of those homes concentrated in the borough's north section.

Councilmember Kamillah Hanks, who represents Staten Island’s northernmost neighborhoods, acknowledged that her borough has produced a fraction of the homes needed to address the city’s housing shortage. But she asked Garodnick and other city officials to go back to the drawing board.

“We are not doing our part,” Hanks said. “Maybe we need to look at this again and focus and maybe use a scalpel as opposed to a hammer when it comes trying to get done the things that the City of Yes is stating that it wants to do.”

More conservative councilmembers have remained hostile to the plan — particularly a proposed rule change allowing extra units on single-family lots and another eliminating mandatory minimum parking requirements for new developments.

“My district can’t find parking,” said Councilmember Robert Holden, who represents a section of western and central Queens. “People are parked in Ridgewood and Glendale and Middle Village in front of hydrants.” He sparred with Garodnick at the hearing, telling the planning director that his district doesn’t have to be “part of the solution” to address the housing crisis.

But the plan’s proponents say the zoning changes are imperative to increase housing supply, bring down home prices and unlock neighborhoods to a more diverse mix of New Yorkers

Department of Housing Preservation and Development Commissioner Adolfo Carrión framed the City of Yes as a step in the “march for civil rights” because it will create new homes in neighborhoods historically unavailable to people of color. Mayor Adams himself has been making that argument in pushing the plan.

“It’s not a panacea,” said Carrión, who sat beside Garodnick during the hearing. “It doesn’t solve everything, but what it does is it moves the needle forward in creating the environment that we need to ensure that we are able to deliver on the promise of opportunity, of economic justice.”

Plan supporters are also touting a new poll released on Monday by the political consulting firm Slingshot Strategies, which found 81% of respondents said they supported a summary of the plan’s key provisions. The pollsters said they interviewed 900 registered voters in New York City for the survey.

The plan has additional support from many housing and budget experts, who submitted testimony ahead of the hearings. Sean Campion, director of housing and economic development studies at the nonprofit Citizens Budget Commission, urged councilmembers not to tinker too much with the proposal.

“Holding out for unrelated spending priorities not only puts much needed affordable housing at risk but also threatens the city’s ability to pay for other city services,” Campion said in written testimony to the Council.