Community outcry grows against Mayor Adams' City of Yes housing proposal as zoning changes face scrutiny

If we have areas in New York City that are underdeveloped, couldn’t a developer come in right now and redevelop it, thus creating more housing under our current zoning?”

Councilman Eric Dinowitz

The City of Yes for Housing Opportunity saga continues.

Oct. 21 began a two-day comment period, starting with City Council comments, followed by a day-long hearing of public comments. 

City of Yes is Mayor Eric Adams’ three-part proposal that would change zoning laws to, in his view, make the city easier develop, commercially and residentially, the first two proposals — for economic opportunity and carbon neutrality — have been approved by the City Council. But, the last proposal, to address housing across the five boroughs, is taking a lot of heat. 

A Community Board 8 special committee on the housing part of the proposal released a report and resolution stating it found the plan to be “fatally flawed” and as such, rejected it and expressed hope the City Council would do the same. 

Councilman Eric Dinowitz made his voice heard during the Oct. 21 meeting, asking director of city planning Dan Garodnick about the need for the expansion when underdeveloped properties already exist. 

“Just the fact that something is zoned for opportunity does not mean that anything is actually happening,” Garodnick said. “And you can see that today because we have zoning capacity in areas and nothing is happening.” 

Dinowitz’s focus was on developers’ decision where to build. If a developer wanted to, he said, it could buy houses and properties and rework them under existing zoning laws. 

He noted, in his district, developers have come in and demolished properties to build not housing, but shelters and charter schools.

Dinowitz’s concern regarding the City of Yes housing proposal moving forward is whether checks and balances will be in place for developers to come in and build housing the city desperately needs, rather than whatever they choose. 

Nothing in the language of the mayor’s proposal encourages developers to build specifically housing. 

Dinowitz also mentioned the level of community input what gets built where, mirroring concerns published in the community board’s resolution. 

The councilman referred to the controversial men's shelter at 6661 Broadway. Approved in April, the shelter will be operated by Yonkers-based Westhab, a organization specializing in transitional services, to house up to 140 homeless men. 

The controversy surrounding the shelter stems from residents’ safety concerns that were not quelled when the department of homeless services discussed the shelter with Community Board 8 last June. Department officials said men would not be barred from the shelter due to criminal records, sex-offender status, mental impairment or drug-abuse problems. 

The community board, neighboring residents and officials fought hard against the approval of the shelter and were dismayed by the decision to go ahead with the project. 

Currently, the middle school associated with International Leadership Charter High School located at 3030 Riverdale Ave., is under construction. As advisory bodies, community boards do not have jurisdiction of whether or where charter schools are built. Developing the land at 306 W. 232 St. was met with resistance; community members questioned why the property could not be used to build affordable housing instead.

Dinowitz said the land originally hosted two single-family homes that were knocked down for the school. 

In its report, the Community Board 8 committee didn’t mince words.

“The (City of Yes for Housing) proposal is extreme in its removal of local review, input, and approval,” as written in the community board’s report. 

When discussing the proposal, affordable housing often comes up.

As it stands, the plan offers developers that agree to offer affordable housing as part of their developments a 20-percent square-foot bonus on the contingency the affordable housing aligns with the 60-percent area-median-income guideline.

The city’s 60-percent area median income is $65,220 for a single-family household. 

“This is a very complicated issue. It isn’t just about the subsidies that exist to build affordable housing, it’s the type of housing being built,” Dinowitz said. 

Dinowitz said the city is characterized by eclectic neighborhood styles, and their residential densities should be a welcome diversity rather than seen as an issue.