Q&A
Council Member Rita Joseph questions zoning proposal language and affordability measures
5:41:03
·
3 min
Council Member Rita Joseph engages in a Q&A session with Chair Daniel Garodnick about the City of Yes zoning proposal. She inquires about potentially misleading language in the proposal, the effectiveness of the Universal Affordability Preference (UAP) in addressing affordability concerns, and the number of affordable units that would be created citywide if the proposal is approved.
- Garodnick clarifies that "commercial corridor" has a specific zoning definition related to commercial overlays.
- The UAP sets an average of 60% AMI for affordability, which is lower than previous programs but may still not meet the needs of the lowest-income residents.
- The proposal is estimated to create between 12,000 to 30,000 affordable units under the UAP program.
Rita Joseph
5:41:03
Thank you, chair.
5:41:03
Thank you for hanging there.
5:41:05
Kind of remind me one of my education hearings by hanging there.
5:41:08
Hang in there.
5:41:09
Question was on language revision.
5:41:11
For example, DC the language that you have for the city of yes, such as wide street commercial corridors.
5:41:17
I'm finding that the language is misleading instead of calling in a commercial corridor where there are no businesses along the stretch of the road.
5:41:24
Why why that usage of language?
Daniel Garodnick
5:41:27
Commercial carter has an actual definition under zoning as commercial overlay.
Rita Joseph
5:41:33
Okay.
Daniel Garodnick
5:41:34
So those are areas where res it's a residential area where we have on the city map.
5:41:40
We have laid over it.
5:41:42
An area where you can actually have some amount of commercial activity.
5:41:45
So on this if you if you remember the slide from 5 hours ago, it was those single story of commercial, which you see all around the city.
5:41:55
Right.
5:41:56
Those are commercial overlays if they're otherwise in residential districts.
5:42:01
So that's what that's what I'm referring to when I say commercial.
Rita Joseph
5:42:03
Okay.
5:42:03
Thank you for clarifying that.
5:42:05
And also the universal affordability as a voluntary measure I know it's it's not enough to deliver affordable housing if we're starting it off at 60% AMI, which leaves out a lot of my constituents in my district.
5:42:20
So for our low income workers, our retired, our older adults, And as we know, by 2030, if I'm correct, most of our we'll have more older adults than we'll have New York City students.
5:42:31
So we also have to plan for them as well.
5:42:33
How do you respond to the concern that the affordability in the ZH oh, not enough to tackle our highs end crisis for the people that will be mostly impacted.
Daniel Garodnick
5:42:43
I would say that I understand that point and that we drove the AMI levels from our existing voluntary programs from 80% at a fixed level.
5:42:52
So you had to be at 80%, down to 60%.
5:42:55
So this is brand new for us.
5:42:57
And we have expanded that 60% from 13% of our medium and high density areas to 100% of our medium and high density areas, and it's not just 60%.
5:43:06
It's an average of 60%.
5:43:08
So we can get we can actually get lower than 60% in in a way that before you, you know, you had to be at 80.
5:43:16
So we're considerably lower with this program, and we think that it's gonna deliver more units of housing through UAP than all of our affordable housing programs in the city's history.
Rita Joseph
5:43:27
So 60% is a starting point, but there's there's room to grow and and go because I do have constituents in my district that falls under 40%, 30%.
5:43:37
How do we meet their needs if we're really building for them.
Daniel Garodnick
5:43:40
That's it's correct to say that that is not a strict limit.
5:43:43
It can it is an average, but also it's important to note that UAP and a 60% AMI even averaged.
5:43:51
That's not the whole picture in terms of the city's need, the city's ability to deliver affordable housing, the ability to, you know, to deliver extremely low income housing for people who need it.
5:44:02
So it's a it's a piece of the puzzle, but it is certainly not the entire piece of the puzzle.
Rita Joseph
5:44:06
And I'm not sure if I missed this, but if we do approve this, well, how many affordable units are we will be creating citywide?
Daniel Garodnick
5:44:19
Give me 30 seconds, and the answer the answer to the question was, if I gave this one earlier, I believe, between 12:30,000 in under UAP.
Rita Joseph
5:44:27
Okay.
5:44:27
Thank you, chair.
Daniel Garodnick
5:44:30
Thank you.
Kevin C. Riley
5:44:30
Thank you, councilmember Carr.
