CITY OF YES FOR HOUSING OPPORTUNITY APPROVED
On December 5, 2024, the New York City Council approved the City of Yes for Housing Opportunity citywide zoning text amendment by a vote of 31 to 20. This text amendment is the most significant overhaul of the city’s zoning regulations since the Zoning Resolution was enacted in 1961. Although the City Council approved the text amendment with modifications, most of the core pieces of the original proposal remained intact. This includes the new citywide Universal Affordability Preference regulations that permit increased floor area above the basic maximum floor area ratio through the provision of affordable housing, changes that allow the as-of-right residential conversion of certain non-residential buildings built prior to 1991 citywide, reductions to parking requirements for large swaths of the city (although scaled back as part of the City Council modifications), expansion of quality housing floor area deductions to all multi-family buildings, elimination of the density factor in parts of Manhattan and downtown Brooklyn, as well as new campus infill provisions, accessory dwelling unit regulations and town center zoning provisions (all of which were scaled back from the original proposal), among several others.
In the coming weeks and months, we will provide more detailed client alerts digging into these changes and explaining their respective impacts. We will also be highlighting the more subtle, and at times, more significant changes that did not get significant press coverage and attention, but may be as impactful as the aforementioned changes. The text amendment included extensive modifications to various residential bulk provisions, such as yards, courts, height, minimum distance between buildings, minimum distance between windows and walls and lot lines, minimum lot size, among many others. While many of these changes may seem hyper-technical, in certain situations they could have a significant impact on the viability of a development site. For example, a property burdened by an irregular lot shape, shallow depth and/or narrow width may now be a viable development site where it previously was not. We look forward to assisting our clients in navigating these comprehensive changes and unlocking value, as well as helping the city realize its housing goals.
|
