Mayor's zoning plan gets council's blessing

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The City Council is poised to pass the mayor’s controversial rezoning plans after members agreed to several changes to the proposals.

In a deal announced on Monday, one change to the Mandatory Inclusionary Housing (MIH) proposal, which requires affordable housing units in new buildings in rezoned areas, allows Council members to determine how much the affordable units in their districts cost on a case by case basis.

Another part of the deal eases requirements for parking at new developments less than Mayor Bill de Blasio originally called for in his Zoning for Quality and Affordability (ZQA) proposal. The agreement also makes the minimum size for affordable senior units bigger, at 325 square feet, than the mayor initially proposed.

But overall, the deal announced by City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito on Monday largely preserves the mayor’s plan to encourage more affordable housing through sweeping zoning changes — although most community boards, including CB 8 in the northwest Bronx, voted against the measures last year.

Local Councilman Andrew Cohen said he will oppose ZQA and support MIH in a vote expected in the coming days.

“I am unequivocally voting against ZQA… Ultimately, my biggest objection here is the process,” he said, adding that the city left communities out of the process of creating the proposal.

He said he will vote in favor of MIH because it is less relevant to his district and neighborhoods targeted for more affordable housing will have a chance to influence whether they are “up-zoned” first.

“I’m sort of more sympathetic to MIH despite the same concerns I have about the process overall,” Mr. Cohen said.

Council members and grassroots groups spent recent months arguing that income levels for new housing mandated by MIH would still be too expensive for many New Yorkers. This week’s deal makes some of the units available to families earning as little as 40 percent of the area median income (AMI), with the maximum income at developments in areas subject to MIH’s rules coming to 120 percent of AMI. Council members will be able to tell developers what level to price the affordable units at.

Mr. Cohen said the changes are likely to win over most of his colleagues.

“I think that this has very, very broad support. I think it will pass by a very wide margin,” he said.

Councilman Fernando Cabrera, whose district includes part of Kingsbridge, and Councilman Ydanis Rodriguez, who represents part of Marble Hill, said they will vote in favor of the rezoning plans.

“I think everyone realizes housing is in crisis in New York City,” Mr. Rodriguez said in a phone interview. “I believe this is the plan that intends to address the crisis of housing in our city.”

Prior to the deal, Mr. Cabrera issued a press release supporting the mayor’s plans.

We must act now, and we must act boldly to ensure all residents have access to affordable housing in our growing City. I strongly believe that the MIH and ZQA reforms are critical for improving access to affordable housing for low- and middle-income families in New York City,” read the March 10 statement from Mr. Cabrera, who declined an interview request for this article.

While the mayor’s plans recently earned high-profile support from groups and leaders including the NAACP and Rev. Al Sharpton, local activists voiced outrage at this week’s deal.

“My sense is that Hazel Dukes and the NY State NAACP Board know very little if anything about how outrageously inappropriate the Mayor's MIH plan is,” Riverdale activist Marty Zelnik said in an email.Even those of [us] from the Riverdale community and the [Riverdale Community Coalition] who oppose the MIH plan are supportive of true reform, but not a plan that will displace existing ‘affordable units with apartments priced at such a level that those living in our greater Riverdale cannot afford.”

Riverdale resident and urban planning consultant Paula Luira Caplan said supporters of the mayor’s proposals focused more on MIH than ZQA.

“I definitely think the fact that they are in the same breath endorsing both is not a good thing,” she said. “It’s a concern that the two proposals are being evaluated together because they are separate proposals addressing separate issues. They have separate positive and negative aspects.”

Still, this week’s deal seems to guarantee one of the most important proposals of Mr. de Blasio’s administration.

“New York City is now on the verge of implementing the strongest, most progressive affordable housing policies in the nation,” he said in a statement. “Years from now, we will look back on this as a watershed moment when we turned the tide to keep our city a place for everyone.”

The print version of this story incorrectly stated Mr. Cohen opposes MIH.

rezoning, Bill de Blasio, MIH, ZQA, Andrew Cohen, Fernando Cabrera, Ydanis Rodriguez, Will Speros

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