NYC “City of Yes” housing plan draft released, addresses affordability

The Adams administration released a draft version of its signature housing plan on Thursday, revealing new details about the city’s strategy to address the ongoing crisis.

Mayor Adams first introduced his “City of Yes for Housing Opportunity” scheme in September. It’s intended to spur the creation of 100,000 new apartments across the city over the next decade or so by cutting zoning red tape to enable “a little more housing in every neighborhood.”

Components of “Zoning for Housing Opportunity” include allowing accessory dwelling units such as basement apartments, lifting parking mandates and making it easier to convert office buildings into housing.

The nearly 800 page-long annotated text shared Thursday included long-sought specifics about affordability requirements.

One of the key proposals is allowing buildings to be built 20% larger than normally permitted, if the extra space is permanently affordable.

Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine supports the measure and previously estimated “Universal Affordability Preference,” or UAP, could lead to tens of thousands of new affordable apartments.

Thursday’s announcement revealed that to qualify for UAP, units will have to be affordable to New Yorkers earning an average of 60% of the area median income (AMI). That translates to monthly rents of $1,272 for a studio apartment or $1,906 for a two-bedroom.

The plan also stipulates that the “deep affordability” option of Mandatory Inclusionary Housing (MIH) — which developers are required to include when an area is rezoned to add housing — can be used on its own, and no longer has to be paired with other, higher AMI levels.

Rachel Fee, executive director of the New York Housing Conference, was encouraged by the new parameters.

“I think that’s real affordability,” she said of the 60% AMI average. “We’re really pleased that the city is taking this approach, that they’re encouraging more affordable housing with a density bonus, and that this is going to be at rents that are below market and at the kind of affordability levels New Yorkers need.”

City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams similarly praised the news.

“The affordability levels in the new text for the Zoning for Housing Opportunity better reflect the growing need for prioritizing deeper affordability, and I welcome these changes,” she said in a statement. “As a city, we must advance policies that secures affordable housing for all New Yorkers.”

But the plan has proved divisive, embraced by pro-development and real estate groups but treated with skepticism by some communities and advocates who fear it would do little to alleviate the housing crisis.

It comes as lawmakers in Albany are circling a larger housing deal.

Zoning for Housing Opportunity is currently in the environmental review stage and still has to undergo the city’s monthslong land use process. It’s the third and final prong in the “City of Yes” zoning changes, the first of which passed last year and the second of which is headed to a final City Council vote.