In the interest of creating afforadable housing, the de Blasio administration plans to make zoning changes that would eliminate parking requirements for some affordable and senior housing, while also permitting the construction of taller buildings.
After it is reviewed by the Department of City Planning, it could go into effect this fall. The rezoning is part of Mayor de Blasio plan to build and preserve 200,000 affordable housing units by 2024. This change could change the city’s landscape, allowing for less boxy buildings.
“This will ultimately fix a lot of problems that have held back affordable housing and made it more costly to build,” Wiley Norvell, a spokesman for the mayor, said in an email. “With these changes, we’ll be able to get more affordable housing, lower construction costs and build the sort of buildings that really fit into our neighborhoods’ fabric.”
It would eliminate and reduce parking requirements for new low-income, inclusionary and affordable senior housing units that are within a half-mile of mass transit. This allows for more space for buildings and is available to new mixed-income developers interesting in reducing their parking.
The rezoning would also allow for increased height restrictions, depending on neighborhoods. This would permit buildings to be built higher or simply to start beneath sidewalk levels.
The proposed amendments would make it easier for construction on corner and unusually shaped lots, according to Capital.
The zoning changes would also allow for mixed housing for assisted living and nursing homes. This saves space and funds, by changing the rule that the two must be separated.
These modifications would also affect “voluntarily inclusionary housing”, a program that allows developers to build larger residential buildings in exchange for including affordable units.
Those “bonuses” are sometimes pointless because zoning doesn’t just limit floor area, but height, too. The new proposal would permit developers receiving bonuses to exceed the height limit.
City planning chairman Carl Weisbrod said the amendments, if enacted, will “make it easier and less expensive to build affordable housing in the city.”
“All of these proposals were contemplated in Mayor de Blasio’s Housing Plan, which was produced this past May,” Weisbrod said in a statement. “A lot of work is still ahead of us in order to make the goal of decent, affordable housing a reality, but this is a major milestone along that long road.”
The planning department is beginning outreach and an environmental review process. A draft environmental impact statement will be ready by spring, and the public review process will begin by summer. If all goes accordingly, it would be complete by fall.
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