In Governor Kathy Hochul’s recent State of the State address she outlined a number of ideas to solve the affordable housing crisis. While several ideas have merit and we can fully support them, we are concerned with lifting the Floor Area Ratio (FAR) Cap.
What would lifting the Cap mean? In short, denser buildings that could have even more residential floor area than is currently allowed. While in theory this may seem innocuous, keep in mind that one can only achieve this density in R10 districts. Such districts have already yielded completely as-of-right developments such as Billionaire’s Row.
Lifting the FAR Cap incentivizes developers to demolish “underbuilt” existing buildings which are often older building stock and more often than not have apartments which rent for less than those in the surroudning neighbhood overall. Through demolition and elimination of such units, while ground is freed up for new development, existing residents are displaced, often out of the neighborhood. New developments inevitably rent or sell for more than the rate of what they replace.
The past eight years of policies prove that looking to the open market solve the affordability crisis is a game of quicksand.
Meaningful change would be to require a set amount of new developments be dedicated to affordable housing. Period.
Lifting the FAR Cap will have the biggest impact on the UES and UWS, already the densest and second densest neighborhoods in the country.
The existing propsal is buried within the State budget. Our joint letter is as follows: