Could The City Of Yes For Housing Opportunity Be The Answer To NYC’s Housing Crisis?

For many New York City residents, finding a reasonably priced place to live is akin to finding an empty subway car during rush hour: Never say never, but the odds are stacked against them, especially with increases in rent prices. 

Community Service Society conducted an analysis of the 2021 New York City Housing and Vacancy Survey in October and found that a third of New Yorkers allocate over half of their earnings toward their rent. 

On Aug. 17, Mayor Eric Adams laid out the City of Yes for Housing Opportunity, a plan to build more housing in all NYC neighborhoods. This plan includes the creation of more affordable units through its Universal Affordability Preference initiative, as well as enacting changes to regulations that can make way for more homes.

This focus on combating the housing shortage is part of Adams’ larger City of Yes plan, which includes revamping zoning rules to benefit NYC’s businesses and helping the region work toward its goals of cutting down on greenhouse gas usage.

Maurizio Anglani, a partner at New York City-based law firm Ingram Yuzek Gainen Carroll & Bertolotti, works on legal cases and contracts for commercial construction clients. He sat down with Bisnow to discuss the impacts of zoning changes on the construction and development industry as a result of Adams' City of Yes for Housing Opportunity and to share his perspective on whether this initiative will bring significant change to NYC.

Bisnow: How can the City of Yes for Housing Opportunity help NYC with solving the shortage of homes?

Anglani: The proposal is aimed at incentivizing building new housing in response to New York’s housing crisis. It particularly focuses on addressing certain zoning restrictions. Some highlights include the UAP, changing the rules that limit office-to-residential conversions, legalizing new homes above businesses on commercial streets, and removing parking mandates, among others.

Bisnow: What impact will this initiative have on zoning and parking requirements? Will it affect existing and future developments in the city in a positive manner? 

Anglani: While there are various zoning requirements being considered, the elimination of mandatory parking minimums has received a lot of attention because it impacts transit-oriented development, another key aspect of the plan. Removing parking minimums seems to make sense in light of the focus on transit-oriented development. 

Mayor Adams pointed out that parking mandates will reduce costs, create more space for residences and incentivize the development of affordable housing. While this may very well turn out to be true, some reports and industry professionals have highlighted that there isn’t enough evidence to determine whether the plan will, on its own, be sufficient to lower housing costs. 

Nevertheless, it seems like this plan, together with the MTA’s historic capital plan for 2020-2024, confirms that New York is poised to continue to grow as a transit-oriented city, which is, in my view, a positive development.

Bisnow: Since this initiative has yet to be voted on by the City Planning Commission and the City Council, what is the general consensus among developers? How will it impact their daily operations, as well as their projects that are currently in the works?

Anglani: The construction and development community has generally reacted favorably to the proposed zoning initiatives, although many developers are still focused on the lack of tax incentives. Nevertheless, if City of Yes for Housing Opportunity is passed and ultimately meets its stated goals, it could incentivize the development of new types of assets. For instance, we could start seeing more construction of two-to-five-story apartment buildings and the creation of new mixed-use corridors.

Bisnow: If passed, what implications will this initiative have on business at Ingram?

Anglani: We may see a shift in the types of projects we work on, which may involve new issues and new legal and business considerations to be aware of when representing clients involved in these types of deals.

This article was produced in collaboration between Ingram Yuzek Gainen Carroll & Bertolotti and Studio B. Bisnow news staff was not involved in the production of this content.

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