PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Lucie Levine, Representative of Historic Districts Council on City of Yes for Housing Opportunity
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Lucie Levine, representing the Historic Districts Council (HDC), provided testimony on the City of Yes for Housing Opportunity (COYHO) proposal. HDC supports some aspects of the proposal but expresses concerns about others, particularly regarding the potential impact on historic neighborhoods and affordable housing.
- HDC supports relegalizing shared and supportive housing, town center zoning, and commercial-to-residential conversions.
- They conditionally support ADUs and expanded TDRs for landmarks, but have concerns about zoning lot mergers and streamlining special district regulations.
- HDC opposes the lack of affordable housing requirements and the potential removal of public oversight in housing development projects.
Lucie Levine
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Thanks so much.
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Hi, council members.
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My name is Lucy Levine, and I'm speaking on behalf of the Historic Districts Council.
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What follows is our abbreviated comments.
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HTC supports some pieces of the proposal, but deals with CIO YHO will create market rate and luxury housing while incentivizing demolition of historic neighborhoods and replacing and replacement of existing affordable and rent regulate housing with denser and less affordable housing.
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First, some things we support.
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HTC supports reli relegalizing existing typologies such as shared and supportive housing.
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We also endorse town center zoning, and we strongly support commercial to residential conversion, and adaptive reuse city wide.
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2nd, some things HDC supports with caveats.
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HDC supports ADUs, but seeks confirmation that LPC will have jurisdiction over ADU design and placement on landmark sites.
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HCC supports expanded TDRs for individual landmarks, but is concerned that zoning lot mergers could allow TDRs to be transferred further than COYHO proposes.
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We are concerned that COYHO's effort to streamline special district regulations will compromise their character and may incentivize demolition of rent regulated housing.
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We believe any infill on public land must be 100% affordable.
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Things HTC opposes.
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HTC decries the fact that COYHO does not require any affordable housing and we are concerned that COYHO's effort to streamline housing development will remove these projects from public oversight, items that are not addressed by COYHO.
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The city is losing affordable housing through building combination, affordable unit warehousing and big footing, a term coined by George Shanes, right here, to describe replacing smaller buildings with rent regulated housing with much larger luxury buildings with fewer units.
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COO YHO must address these issues.
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COYHO should also incentivize restoration of underutilized units by expanding programs like the unlocking doors pilot.
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Finally, HTC's 2016 report on affordable housing and historic districts demonstrated that rent subsidized units remain within historic districts at a higher rate than outside them.
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Therefore, the city risks losing much of its rent regulated historic housing simply because
