ANHD 2016 Building the Community Development Movement
As reported in an article in Crain’s New York Thursday night, the City has the opportunity to strike a better deal in the important Astoria Cove rezoning because the City was mistaken in how it mapped the benefits that the developer is required to offer under the current public benefits that he will receive.
According to Crain’s, the City realized that the Astoria Cove rezoning requested by developer Alma Realty is inside the Geographic Exclusion Area for the 421a Developer’s Tax Break. Therefore the Astoria Cove project is legally obligated to set aside 20% of units as affordable housing for residents making 60% AMI or $1,260 for a 2-bedroom apartment if the developer intends to make use of this tax break. While this might seem like a technicality, this significantly changes the parameters of the Astoria Cove deal.
The deal currently under consideration for Astoria Cove only required that 20% of units be affordable for residents making 80% of AMI, or $1,670 for a 2-bedroom apartment. In its current form, the Astoria Cove deal wouldn’t even qualify for the 421a Developer’s Tax Break.
Now, the Administration has the opportunity to drive a better deal, in line with the Administration’s important new principal that developers not be allowed to “double dip” with multiple publicly-backed benefit without significantly increasing the benefits for the public.
The administration has committed to driving a harder bargain with developers than the minimum required under City housing and land-use regulations. Leveraging more affordability via market-based incentives like inclusionary zoning and 421a is a central part of Mayor de Blasio’s housing vision. Given this, Alma Realty and the Astoria Cove rezoning should be required to do far more than the minimum amount of affordable housing required.
Under the 421a Developer’s Tax Break, all residential units in Astoria Cove – including the market-rate units – will receive a 25 year tax break. In addition to this overly generous tax break, Alma Realty is asking for a rezoning in order to build high-density residential units on a site zoned for low-density industrial businesses. In other words, Astoria Cove is asking for 2 different subsidies from the public, but counting the same 20 percent set aside of affordable housing units for both programs. The City is continuing to give double the subsidy incentive for the same affordable units; this cannot stand as what constitutes a good deal for the community.
If the administration intends to stick to its commitment to maximize the public benefit, private developers must give back more in exchange for using two different kinds of public subsidy.
The administration should use the opportunity of this reopening of negotiations to ensure that Astoria Cove provides the best deal for the community. Astoria Cove is the first of many rezonings to come. ANHD with our members have been leading campaigns on the Inclusionary Zoning and 421a-Developers Tax Break, due to expire in June, 2015. This is a critical moment for the City, to clearly indicate that healthy, affordable communities and neighborhoods come before real estate interests.
Bloggers: Barika X. Williams and Emily Goldstein