Q&A
Discussion on parking minimums and their impact on housing production
4:42:40
·
4 min
Council Member Restler and Chair Garodnick discuss the importance of eliminating parking minimums for housing production in NYC. They explore the potential impact on the City of Yes plan and compare it to similar policies in other cities like Buffalo.
- The City of Yes plan aims to produce about 100,000 units of housing over 15 years
- Elimination of parking minimums is crucial for various components of the plan, including accessory dwelling units and transit-oriented development
- In Buffalo, 47% of large new buildings built less parking after parking mandates were removed, suggesting a similar trend could occur in NYC
Lincoln Restler
4:42:40
I think briefly, the first is around parking and parking minimums.
4:42:46
And, you know, you've noted Chiroporonic that this is a critical kind of component of the broader proposal you know, my understanding is that we're talking about if city of yes were to, you know, its most maximal kind of ambitious goals would accomplish about 100,000 units of housing over the next 15 years.
4:43:05
Is that right?
Daniel Garodnick
4:43:06
That's right.
Lincoln Restler
4:43:07
So that's about a 131 units of housing in every council district for 15 years.
Daniel Garodnick
4:43:12
I'll accept your math.
Lincoln Restler
4:43:14
Good.
4:43:14
It's not that much housing.
4:43:15
So I just wanna say to everybody who's freaking out and to your point to some of my earlier colleagues' questions about infrastructure concerns, We're talking about a pretty modest amount of housing citywide over a 15 year period.
4:43:27
131 I I can tell you if you come visit District 33.
4:43:31
I think there are at least 15 different projects happening right now that are bigger than a 131 units of housing.
4:43:36
In our that are under construction as we speak.
4:43:39
But I wanna come back to parking minimums.
4:43:41
I'm sorry.
4:43:41
I I tangent in a little bit there.
4:43:44
Out of the 100,000 units of housing, if we were to eliminate the parking minimum proposals altogether, Can you estimate how dramatic a drop that would mean to housing production in the city of ES plan?
Daniel Garodnick
4:43:56
Well, it the elimination of parking minimums as a general matter is really important because it's in conflict with with housing production generally.
4:44:04
But it's also critical for effectuating component parts of this proposal.
4:44:10
Like accessory dwelling unit with a parking minimum does not work.
4:44:16
Transit oriented development with parking minimum does not work.
4:44:19
Town center with parking minimum does not work.
4:44:22
So it's it's quite important.
4:44:24
I don't have a specific number for you, but we'll note that it is is it's critical for us to effectuate various component parts of this, which is one of the reasons why we encourage the council to keep it generally, and also to keep it in as part of these subproposals here for City of Jasper Housing.
Lincoln Restler
4:44:41
I I couldn't agree with you more.
4:44:42
I look.
4:44:43
I thought that the way that the parking minimums were the the elimination of parking mandates was incorporated into ZQA, was sensible.
4:44:51
It's in transit rich areas that we don't need to be building as much parking.
4:44:56
Katz member Lee has 0 train station subway stations at her district.
4:44:59
I've got 20 something.
4:45:00
It shouldn't be one size fits all.
4:45:02
I'm not saying that what works in district 33 applies for council member lead.
4:45:06
That got Salveen excited.
4:45:08
Our majority whip likes my comments.
4:45:09
That's a I but but for the transit rich portions of our city, we should not we should be eliminating parking minimums altogether.
4:45:20
We should have done it yesterday.
4:45:21
And we fight with every developer that comes in who wants to do a Euler condition 33 and say, if you don't submit a parking waiver, I'm not approving your project.
4:45:29
And we've had to actually delay projects to get those parking waivers incorporated because we've been building hundreds of units of new housing, thousands of units of new housing without additional parking spot.
4:45:38
So I was just interested, you know, in Buffalo that you'd mentioned in a moment ago, Trevor Veronik, our review of the data found that 47% of large new buildings in Buffalo built less parking after parking mandates were removed.
4:45:53
Do you anticipate a similar kind of shift in New York City?
4:45:57
Is there any way to to estimate this reboot, you know, of where we would be going if we were to remove these park mandates?
Daniel Garodnick
4:46:05
Well, most importantly, the buffalo situation shows that by eliminating the mandate, you get housing, which you wouldn't have otherwise gotten.
4:46:14
And it also shows that it is provided at some level where it is needed.
4:46:21
To your point about less parking, yes, you might see less parking particularly in places which have some proximity to transit.
4:46:29
That is what naturally happens here.
4:46:32
We've seen it in Buffalo.
4:46:32
We've seen it in other parts of the country.
4:46:34
We believe the same would be true here in New York City.
Lincoln Restler
4:46:37
And the last question, if that's okay.
Kevin C. Riley
4:46:39
You have one more question.
Lincoln Restler
4:46:40
One more question.
Kevin C. Riley
4:46:40
Alright.
4:46:41
Go ahead.
