City of Yes could eliminate public spaces

Sep 9, 2024 | Advocacy, City Council, City of Yes, Community Board 7, Dept. of City Planning, Zoning

By Megan Fitzpatrick

The City Planning Commission (CPC) is still deliberating on their upcoming vote on the massive almost 1,400 pages of zoning text titled City of Yes for Housing Opportunity (COYHO). The City’s residents, however, are not sold on the zoning proposal and many Community Boards have already rejected it, (Community Board 7 abstained from voting).

COYHO stands to impact nearly every neighborhood and all aspects of City Zoning. This broad brush stroke is bound to have many unforeseen impacts. One such instance is the case of our POPS — Privately Owned Public Spaces.

POPS – Public space is at a premium in this dense city and one of the most significant public-private partnerships to obtain urban public space was pioneered in New York City under the rubric of privately owned public space (POPS). These POPS appear in hundreds of office and residential towers that have received zoning floor bonuses to build larger than otherwise allowed but to simultaneously encourage the provision of publicly used spaces – plazas, arcades, atriums – effectively “giving back” the street. They are legally required to be open and accessible to the public. There are 592 POPS, at 389 buildings; many are in midtown, on the Upper East Side, or in Lincoln Square on the Upper West Side (see map)

Although inconsistently maintained and barely regulated, POPS are (fortunately), “legally required” and they grant the public respites from the street wall: a place to catch some shade, eat lunch, and meet with friends. But, COYHO doesn’t care about shade, lunch, or friends though.

Under the new 75-25 Bulk Modifications for Non-Complying Buildings Regulations (starting on page 898), COYHO’s 20% bonus would make many POPS-era buildings compliant with the stroke of a wand. In this future City of Yes-world, they would be eligible for a Quality Housing Bonus. This would entitle them to take floor area from common areas, hallways, and laundry rooms to possibly build out or privatize POPS for retail or other amenity uses. This is because they would no longer legally OWE the City and the public because their building is no longer non-compliant.

There are no hearings for a CPC authorization, which will mean that these local land use decisions will be made by the CPC without any input from the people who are impacted by the decisions the most: you, the neighbors. The vast expansion of CPC authorizations in City of Yes takes land use decisions out of our standard ULURP process and give the final say to the CPC, a group of unelected bureaucrats. 

Simply put, this is BAD LAND USE POLICY, and just one more instance where COYHO’s one-size planning does not fit all neighborhoods.

We need Local Input in Local Decisions. We:

Gotta Save Our POPS!

Catch up on City of Yes on our dedicated webpage HERE.

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