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De Blasio Will Require Developers To Include Affordable Housing
By
Rebecca Fishbein
Published Sep 6, 2014
Modified Sep 7, 2014
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By
Rebecca Fishbein
Published Sep 6, 2014
Modified Sep 7, 2014
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Yesterday, the de Blasio administration announced a proposal requiring developers to include affordable units in new housing developments, furthering the mayor's plan to create 80,000 new units of affordable housing in the next decade.
The affordable units must be included in certain projects requiring a zoning change from the city. This includes neighborhood-wide residential zoning changes, in addition to developments that are at least six stories high and require approval from the City Planning Commission and City Council. Previously, a zoning floor area bonus allowed developers to build larger developments in exchange for providing affordable units. Now, that bonus will not apply. "You can’t build one unit unless you build your share of affordable housing,” Carl Weisbrod, chairman of the City Planning Commission, said yesterday. “You can’t build just market-rate housing, period.”
The new requirements would be mandatory in fall 2015, and officials say they'll start pursuing a change to the current laws by the spring. And though developers reportedly voiced some concern over the proposal, the mayor—who focused much of his campaign on affordable housing—said this push should have been expected. “I think developers understand that there was an election and this is what we said we were going to do,” de Blasio said at a news conference yesterday. “We’re going to build a lot more affordable housing, and we’re going to ask more of them.”
In May, de Blasio released a $41 billion, ten-year plan that called for the creation of 80,000 new units of affordable housing, in addition to the preservation of 120,000 other units. Some critics, however, noted the plan was far too limited to solve the city's current housing crisis.
Tagged
affordable housing
affordable housing crisis bill
de Blasio
inclusionary zoning
mandatory
tax credits
Rebecca Fishbein
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