Modified version of Adams’ ‘City of Yes’ zoning plan passes key Council committee vote

A modified version of the mayor’s City of Yes housing proposal passed crucial City Council committee votes Thursday after down-to-the-wire negotiations delayed the vote for more than five hours.
Several aspects of the plan, “Zoning for Housing Opportunity,” were scaled back in the last hours of negotiations as city officials hammered out specifics on funding, the number of units to build, the location of accessory dwelling units and parking mandates.
Councilmembers from car-reliant areas in the outer boroughs have raised concerns for months about parking mandates, which would have lifted minimum parking requirements for new developments citywide — but not banned new parking.
The updated plan includes a three-tiered model where mandates will either stay unchanged, be reduced or eliminated entirely depending on location. The modified City of Yes plan also includes carve-outs for accessory dwelling units like granny flats, banning basement and ground-level units in areas identified as flood-prone.
The measure passed 4-3 in the Subcommittee on Zoning and Franchise and 8-2 in the Committee on Land Use, moving the plan, which would add 80,000 more housing units to the five boroughs over the next 15 years, forward to a full Council vote early next month.
“We are recommending modifications to reflect the actual lived reality of New York,” said Subcommittee Chair Kevin Riley. “Plans should not be a theoretical exercise or wishful thinking. It needs to reflect the actual built environment of our neighborhoods and be responsive to the challenges our constituents face every day.”
Councilmembers David Carr, Kamillah Hanks and Lynn Schulman voted no on the plan in the subcommittee, and Hanks and Joe Borelli voted no in the Land Use Committee. Selvena Brooks Powers abstained in the committee’s vote.
“This is a major undertaking, and it’s being rushed, really, in a lot of different ways,” Schulman said. “And so I still have major reservations about it.”
Gov. Hochul agreed to put up $1 billion in funding from the state budget at the request of City Hall late Wednesday night, sources told the Daily News. This came after the Council pushed for new funding commitments from the administration. The state money brings the total funding to $5 billion.
The plan was pitched as a badly needed overhaul of decades-old zoning rules exacerbating the city’s dire housing shortage. The packages of reforms would help build “a little bit more housing” in every neighborhood by loosening restrictions on what can be built where.
“If the City of Yes passes, we will have done so much to bring relief to New Yorkers across the five boroughs,” First Deputy Mayor Maria Torres-Springer said at an unrelated news conference on Thursday morning.
City of Yes has faced strong resistance since its introduction last September from more development-averse outer borough neighborhoods, where residents voiced concerns about how the plan would change the fabric of their communities.
The committee vote comes after months of arduous, often heated evaluation from community boards, borough presidents and other stakeholders during the city’s review process.