UPDATE: As of June 15, 2018 Success! S. 6760 will not be acted on and the Assembly will not take up the issue! Many thanks to all who contacted their State Assembly Members and Senators to push back against efforts to remove the existing cap on height limits on New York City development. LW! will continue to monitor the issue should it return in future NY State legislative sessions.
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UPDATE: As of May 15, 2018 This bill has come back to life! NY State Senate Bill S. 6760, which is backed heavily by the New York Real Estate Board and will give developers the ability to put up ever-higher supertalls will come to a vote on the Senate floor any time between now and the end of the June session, with little to no advance notice. It is critical to contact your elected officials in Albany to ensure that this bill DOES NOT PASS. Find your NY assembly member here. Find your NY State Senator here. Tell them to VOTE NO on S. 6760! As Liz Krueger has said, mega-towers are “the opposite of affordable, and there is nothing in this legislation that will change that.” Make your voice heard that S. 6760 is bad for New York City and only good for developers.
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Think the height of the towers in and coming to our neighborhood are out of control? The State of New York wants to REMOVE the FAR (floor area ratio) height limits that we do have, allowing developers to build even higher and in greater density without proper public review.
Not only would this encourage more far-reaching development and threaten our existing fabric, it would lead to greater pressure on our already stressed infrastructure.
Yesterday, the New York State Senate majority conference took steps to remove the existing cap that controls the density of residential neighborhoods in every borough. They are planning to ram it through the budget vote with little to no public discussion in the next two weeks.
Although this is a state-wide bill, its impact will truly only be felt in New York City.
Read the State Senate bill here that eliminates the current cap of 12 FAR. This is in committee. Together we must put pressure on our State assembly members so that similar bills in the Assembly will not pass. This is urgent! If this language is included in the final budget passed by the Legislature in the next two weeks, supertalls could get even supertaller.