Tag Archives: Department of City Planning

New York City Needs to Stop Negotiating Rezonings from an Uneven Playing Field

At a City Council hearing last week, City Planning Director Marisa Lago explained that the Department of City Planning (DCP) only attempts a neighborhood rezoning when the community or a councilmember expresses “interest.” In that hearing, DCP came under fire from some councilmembers for concentrating their neighborhood rezoning efforts disproportionately in low-income communities of color, as Crain’s reported on Monday.

But what is the underlying dynamic that leads so many councilmembers in low-income communities of color to, in the end, approve neighborhood rezonings despite community opposition and the likelihood of increased displacement pressure on existing residents? There’s a larger context of historic disinvestment and deep inequality across New York City’s neighborhoods that shapes the dynamic around neighborhood rezonings.

Rich neighborhoods are able to get things like school improvements, park repairs, and basic infrastructure maintenance without having to “trade” for something City Hall wants that local residents oppose. Poor neighborhoods have decades of backlogged needs, the direct result of explicit government disinvestment. And to add to this injustice, those neighborhoods are not able to get their needs met through the regular political and budget processes since resources and investment are not allocated in a way that addresses the uneven playing field from which these communities are starting.

Councilmembers in neighborhood after neighborhood cite promised city investment as key reasons they ultimately favor rezoning plans – they want to bring their community some of the investment it needs and has long deserved. In negotiating the East New York rezoning, for example, the City committed to build a new 1,000-seat school. Cypress Hills LDC had been organizing with local parents and students for over a decade to get a new school built in that community; why did it take a rezoning to make it happen? The East Harlem rezoning agreement included $50 million in capital improvements for local NYCHA developments, which was desperately needed (and is still not nearly enough) regardless of surrounding zoning actions.

What Commissioner Lago described as “interest” is really a pattern of councilmembers who represent poor communities correctly assessing that the only way they can get the resources their neighborhood has needed for ages is to trade them in exchange for the added density City Hall wants. The de Blasio Administration is to be commended for setting aside a $1 billion fund to make investments such as these, but access to that fund has been explicitly tied to neighborhood rezonings, reinforcing this trade-off dynamic. Serious, organized community opposition in every neighborhood targeted for rezoning makes it clear that many of the people in these communities do not think the trade-off is worth it. Ultimately, the price of added market-rate density is accelerated gentrification and displacement that will prevent many existing, long-term residents from taking advantage of the investments finally being made in their communities. But the underlying question is, why in New York City – with an Administration that aspires toward a “more equitable city” – are poor communities and the councilmembers that represent them having to make these trade-offs at all?

If decisions about investment and resources for schools, parks, job training, infrastructure – the basic public services a city government should provide – were made equitably, regardless of zoning, how many councilmembers currently asking for or willing to accept rezonings would simply say no, just as those representing rich, white communities do? Rather than declare many neighborhoods off limits and continue to place the burden of citywide policy needs on low-income communities of color, maybe it’s time we had a citywide conversation about how to share the responsibilities of development equitably, add density where it actually makes sense to, and invest resources based on the actual needs of communities.

Emily Golstein, ANHD’s Senior Campaign Organizer

Today, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced new commissioner appointments to lead his Housing and Economic Development team. The new commissioners will lead the critical task of shaping the direction of housing, land use, and job growth of NYC neighborhoods for the next phase of the de Blasio Administration.

ANHD would like to congratulate the new appointees. Maria Torres-Springer will serve as the new Commissioner of the Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD). James Patchett will be appointed as President and CEO of the New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC). And as announced last week, Marisa Lago will serve as the new Commissioner of the Department of City Planning (DCP).

The Mayor’s housing, land use, and economic development goals are central elements of his pledge to “build a more equitable city.” We all share the goal of having historically ambitious and successful programs that can advance both equity and growth in a way that will truly benefit all New Yorkers. The strategies this Administration has used to foster those programs has also generated some local community tension, and the challenge for the new commissioners will be to embrace some key lessons from the first three years.

These new appointments bring their strong and impressive career experiences to help move their agencies forward by both continuing the work of their predecessors and fully embracing Mayor de Blasio’s central pledge to “building a more equitable city.”

Housing, land use, and economic development are central – and often contentious – areas of the Mayor’s policy. This new leadership will play a crucial role in drafting the policies and programs to get us to the shared goal of an equitable and historically successful program.

ANHD would like to thank outgoing Commissioner Vicki Been and Commissioner Carl Weisbrod for their service to our City.

We look forward to working with and engaging this new leadership team in their new roles on the goal of achieving a more equitable city and opportunities for all New Yorkers. ANHD believes that our ability to achieve this goal will have a tremendous impact on the future success of our NYC neighborhoods and communities. Together we can build and create real, permanent affordable housing, stabilize neighborhoods, grow jobs for NY’s under- and unemployed, and plan with neighborhoods for their future.

Last night, hundreds of tenants, workers, business owners, and other local community members packed the Department of City Planning (DCP) scoping hearing for the Jerome Avenue Rezoning. Following a rally and march where community members chanted, “Fight, fight, fight, housing is a right” and “Who’s Bronx? Our Bronx,” members of the Bronx Coalition for a Community Vision streamed into the auditorium at Bronx Community College. Speaker after speaker expressed concerns about how the proposed rezoning would impact existing community members, and voiced skepticism as to whether, a year and a half into the process, the City was taking seriously the community’s concerns.

“I’m a single mother, work day and night to pay rent, and I know the housing built in the rezoning won’t be affordable for me,” said one community member.

“Where are the autos shops going to go? You have no plan for them!” said another.

These stories and others made it clear that without new, significant, proactive anti-displacement protections, new development would benefit people making higher incomes than most local residents and would simply make these stories of harassment more common. Several specific policy recommendations were highlighted, including the need for citywide Certificate of No Harassment legislation to proactively disincentivize harassment.

Many speakers also pointed out that any new affordable housing created under existing programs – specifically Mandatory Inclusionary Housing (MIH) and the City’s Extremely Low- and Low-Income Affordability (ELLA) development program – would largely create housing out of reach for a large percentage of current residents. MIH does not reach the nearly one third of New Yorkers whose incomes are at or below 30% of AMI, and the city’s existing programs for creating affordable housing have only a limited ability to target those at the low end of the income spectrum, who are in fact those most in need of affordable housing in the Jerome Avenue area and throughout the City.

Nearly a year ago, the Bronx Coalition put out a policy platform with thoughtful and detailed recommendations to address their four primary areas of concern: the development of new housing at levels affordable to local residents; anti-displacement & anti-harassment policies for residential and commercial tenants; the creation & preservation of good jobs with local hire; and real community engagement in the planning process.

Coalition members strongly made the case that the draft scope put out by DCP last month did not reflect their policy platform nor did it include detailed recommendations made separately regarding how to conduct an environmental review that would appropriately capture a wide range of possible impacts on the community. While the City has engaged in a wide range of meetings and public forums with local community members, speakers last night pointed out that a real community engagement process needs to result in the local community’s interests being prioritized in the actual plans that move forward.

The communities along Jerome Avenue are not simply saying no to change, a point repeatedly emphasized by opposing speakers. But change can come in a variety of forms to a community that is experiencing rising market pressures, and that change will be fundamentally shaped by this rezoning process. Local residents have a right to see their needs prioritized in the plan.