In her State of the State Address Gov. Hochul called for more housing
And we support this action! There is a homelessness crisis and her plan offers several solutions which have merit–such as converting unused office and hotel space to residential use. We love Adaptive Reuse, and we can fully support this part of her plan!
However, as we, along with our colleagues at FRIENDS of the Upper East Side Historic Districts, the Historic Districts Council, The New York Landmarks Conservancy, and Municipal Art Society point out in our joint letter, we can’t take CHANCES with the COMMUNITY.
BUT Please Don’t Raise the Cap!
As has been proposed many times before, State lawmakers jockey and trade for funding with New York City’s light and air. The current proposal to raise the Floor Area Ratio (FAR) Cap of the Multiple Dwelling Law (MDL) is tucked into the budget as a line item. If this survives the final budget vote, it means added residential density on a given tax lot. The theory is that if developers can build more, somehow the private sector will be motivated to generate additional affordable housing. But we have years of evidence from policies that rely on private developers that proves the opposite. In fact these giveaways further reduce affordability by destroying older, often more affordable housing stock. Any replacement development not only further lifts the neighborhood comparable costs, but if/when affordable units are even provided (and at specific rates of area median income, and for limited periods), they are mere tokenism to addressing the affordability issue which their very redevelopment has further exasperated!
How does this impact the UWS?
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