PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Alia Soomro, Deputy Director for NYC Policy at New York League of Conservation Voters on City of Yes for Housing Opportunity
2:32:40
·
3 min
Alia Soomro from the New York League of Conservation Voters expressed strong support for the City of Yes for Housing Opportunity proposal, emphasizing its potential to address both the climate crisis and housing crisis in New York City. She argued that the proposal would mitigate climate change impacts while improving housing accessibility and affordability.
- Soomro highlighted key components of the proposal, including removing parking mandates, transit-oriented development, town center zoning, accessory dwelling units, and residential conversions.
- She specifically addressed parking mandates, arguing that their elimination would encourage alternative transit modes and free up land for affordable housing without banning new parking entirely.
- Soomro asserted that the proposal's changes are modest and would not fundamentally alter neighborhood character or overly burden the city's sewer system.
Alia Soomro
2:32:40
Good morning.
2:32:41
My name is Aliyah Sumro, and I'm the deputy director for New York City policy at the New York League of Conservation Voters.
2:32:47
Thank you chair Riley and members of the zoning sub committee for the opportunity to testify.
2:32:52
NYLCV strongly supports the passage of city of yes for housing opportunity.
2:32:56
Our city faces 2 pressing challenges, the climate crisis and the housing crisis.
2:33:01
While the state boasts some of the nation's most ambitious climate laws, The city zoning regulations often act as a barrier to reducing our greenhouse gas emissions and addressing the pressing need for denser more affordable housing.
2:33:14
City of Yes will serve a dual purpose, mitigating the impacts of climate change.
Kevin C. Riley
2:33:18
I'm so sorry to interrupt you before you stop.
2:33:20
I'm gonna just stop our time real quick.
2:33:23
We were joined by Tiger Man High School, so I wanna break the corpsman, just clap it up from the young people that came in here today.
2:33:39
Thank you for coming in here.
2:33:42
Let's start that over again.
2:33:43
You may.
2:33:44
You ready?
Alia Soomro
2:33:44
I start from the
Kevin C. Riley
2:33:45
beginning.
2:33:45
Yeah.
2:33:45
You can start from the beginning.
2:33:46
Go ahead.
Alia Soomro
2:33:47
Good morning.
2:33:47
My name is Aliyah Sumro, and I'm the deputy director for New York City policy at the New York League of Conservation Voters.
2:33:54
Thank you, Sherry Riley, and members of the zoning sub committee for the opportunity to testify.
2:33:58
NYCB strongly supports city of yes for housing opportunity.
2:34:02
Our city faces 2 pressing challenges, the climate crisis and the housing crisis.
2:34:07
While the state boasts some of the nation's most ambitious climate laws, the city's zoning regulations often act as a barrier to reducing our greenhouse gas emissions and addressing the pressing need for denser more affordable housing.
2:34:19
City of Yes will serve a dual purpose, mitigating the impacts of climate change and improving housing accessibility and affordability for New Yorkers in an equitable manner.
2:34:28
While NYCV fully supports the entirety of the zoning proposal, we strongly support the following components, removing parking mandates, transit oriented development, town center zoning, accessory dwelling units, and residential conversions.
2:34:42
One prime example of showing how zoning limits housing from being built and incentivizes fossil fuel use are parking mandates.
2:34:50
Parking mandates were included in the city's ZR in the 19 fifties sixties as suburbanization was taking hold.
2:34:56
To this day, our ZR contains outdated minimum parking requirements for housing developments even for homes built close to mass transit and despite the fact that a vast majority of New York city residents use public transit.
2:35:10
Parking mandates raise the cost of housing, inhibits more units from being built, and incentivizes the use of private automobiles.
2:35:16
Eliminating these mandates will not only encourage alternative modes of transit, but also free of valuable land for affordable housing.
2:35:24
Eliminating parking mandates does not ban new parking or eliminate parking entirely.
2:35:29
The proposal will allow developers to meet the needs of each neighborhood in the city.
2:35:34
And as a general manner, NYCB believes that these proposals will not change the fundamental character of neighborhoods or unduly bird in the city sewer system.
2:35:43
These are modest changes that will allow more options throughout the city.
2:35:46
While individual I'll wrap up.
2:35:50
I've submitted longer written testimony.
2:35:52
Thank you for that, Prince.
Kevin C. Riley
2:35:53
Thank you.
