The citymeetings.nyc logo showing a pigeon at a podium with a microphone.

citymeetings.nyc

Your guide to NYC's public proceedings.

TESTIMONY

Bryan Kelly, President of Development at Gotham Organization, on support for City of Yes for Housing Opportunity initiative

10:48:27

·

129 sec

Report an issue

Bryan Kelly, representing Gotham Organization, expresses strong support for the City of Yes for Housing Opportunity initiative, emphasizing its potential to address New York City's housing crisis through increased housing production and affordability measures.

  • Highlights the importance of supply-side economics in housing, citing examples from other parts of the country where increased supply has led to higher vacancy rates and decreased rents
  • Commends specific aspects of the initiative, including Universal Affordability Preference (UAP), office building conversions, and the removal of mandatory parking requirements
  • Argues that the initiative will make affordable housing construction more efficient and obtainable, and support the creation of mixed-income communities
  • Support for the City of Yes legislation
  • Belief in supply-side economics to address housing crisis
  • Need for increased housing production in New York City
  • UAP (Unified as of Right) will generate more units and permanent affordability
  • City of Yes will help repurpose obsolete office buildings
  • Mandated parking adds unnecessary costs to housing development
  • Importance of small-scale developments in addition to mega projects
  • Support for mixed-income housing to retain the 'missing middle' in the city

[EXPERIMENTAL]

Which elements of City of Yes for Housing Opportunity were discussed in this testimony?

  • UAP
  • Residential Conversions
  • Town Center Zoning
  • Parking Mandates

The following are AI-extracted quotes and reasoning about which elements of the proposal were discussed in this testimony.

This is a quick, close approximation. Occasionally, the connection between a testimony's transcript and specific elements of City Planning's proposal is tenuous.

Read about this AI-generated analysis here.

UAP

"UAP, whether for all affordable housing or for mixed income housing is going to generate more units and more permanent affordability."

This quote directly mentions UAP (Universal Affordability Preference) and discusses how it will lead to more housing units and permanent affordability, which aligns with the proposal's goal.

Residential Conversions

"The city of yes will help generate obsolete office buildings."

While not explicitly mentioning residential conversions, this statement implies support for converting obsolete office buildings, which aligns with the residential conversions element of the proposal.

Town Center Zoning

"Town centers, we cannot get our way of out of a housing crisis with only the construction of mega projects. Unit by unit, we get ourselves out of a housing crisis."

This quote directly mentions town centers and emphasizes the importance of smaller-scale development, which aligns with the town center zoning element of the proposal.

Parking Mandates

"Although parking is required in many neighborhoods, it is also a marketability question and decision. To mandate parking in areas that may need may not need it. Just only adds more cost anywhere from 50 to 75,000 per unit because of the inclusion of parking, making the construction of affordable housing cheaper, they're more efficient, and more obtainable."

This quote discusses the issues with parking mandates, mentioning the added costs and inefficiencies, which aligns with the proposal's goal of removing parking mandates.


About this analysis:

This analysis is done by AI that reasons whether or not a quote from the testimony discusses a particular element of the proposal.

All the prompts and data are open and available on Github.

You can search for testimonies that mentioned a specific element in the table on the main meeting page.

When an element is explicitly stated in the testimony (e.g. "Universal Affordability Preference" or "UAP"), the analysis is accurate.

But the connection between a quote from the testimony and an element of the proposal is sometimes implicit.

In these cases, the AI might eagerly label a testimony as discussing a proposal when the connection is tenuous, or it might omit it entirely.

↗ Why are there transcription and diarization errors?
Bryan Kelly
10:48:27
Thank you.
10:48:28
Good evening, everybody.
10:48:29
Sorry, I'm not present on camera.
10:48:32
I'm with the Gotham Organization.
10:48:34
I've been in the development of affordable housing for over 20 years have created through Lanyue's construction or financing over 9 1000 mixed income housing apartments, and then testifying as a practitioner of the developer of affordable housing, I'd start by saying perfect is the enemy of good.
10:48:54
This is fantastic legislation, which is primarily focused on the production of housing.
10:49:00
I believe in supply side economics.
10:49:03
And for those who say the creation of units will not help with the housing crisis, I would recommend studying what is going around in the rest of the country where supply side has actually led to higher vacancy and a decrease in the rents.
10:49:19
Unfortunately, in New York City, we have the opposite trend.
10:49:22
We need to produce housing.
10:49:24
UAP, whether for all affordable housing or for mixed income housing is going to generate more units and more permanent affordability.
10:49:33
The city of yes will help generate obsolete office buildings.
10:49:38
Although parking is required in many neighborhoods, it is also a marketability question and decision.
10:49:45
To mandate parking in areas that may need may not need it.
10:49:49
Just only adds more cost anywhere from 50 to 75,000 per unit because of the inclusion of parking, making the construction of affordable housing cheaper, they're more efficient, and more obtainable.
10:50:02
Town centers, we cannot get our way of out of a housing crisis with only the construction of mega projects.
10:50:11
Unit by unit, we get ourselves out of a housing crisis.
10:50:15
With that said, I know there's a lot more details relating to the legislation.
10:50:19
But perfect is the enemy of God or a city of creativity, a city of production, and an inclusive city where mixed income housing is the way we're gonna keep our missing middle in our city and not for moving out.
10:50:34
With that, I support the legislation.

Follow-up discussion/remarks

QUESTION

Commissioner Rosenberg inquires about town center development model utilization

10:50:38

·

62 sec

Commissioner Joseph Rosenberg asks Bryan Kelly about the potential utilization of the town center development model within the development community. Kelly responds positively, highlighting its benefits for emerging and WBE developers.

  • Kelly believes the town center model will be heavily utilized
  • He emphasizes that smaller developments (5-50 units) on taxpayer lots will help generate the next generation of real estate developers
  • Kelly notes that balance sheet requirements for larger projects are a significant barrier to entry for emerging developers
  • Support for the City of Yes legislation
  • Belief in supply-side economics to address housing crisis
  • Need for increased housing production in New York City
  • UAP (Unified as of Right) will generate more units and permanent affordability
  • City of Yes will help repurpose obsolete office buildings
  • Mandated parking adds unnecessary costs to housing development
  • Importance of small-scale developments in addition to mega projects
  • Support for mixed-income housing to retain the 'missing middle' in the city

[EXPERIMENTAL]

Which elements of City of Yes for Housing Opportunity were discussed in this testimony?

  • UAP
  • Residential Conversions
  • Town Center Zoning
  • Parking Mandates

The following are AI-extracted quotes and reasoning about which elements of the proposal were discussed in this testimony.

This is a quick, close approximation. Occasionally, the connection between a testimony's transcript and specific elements of City Planning's proposal is tenuous.

Read about this AI-generated analysis here.

UAP

"UAP, whether for all affordable housing or for mixed income housing is going to generate more units and more permanent affordability."

This quote directly mentions UAP (Universal Affordability Preference) and discusses how it will lead to more housing units and permanent affordability, which aligns with the proposal's goal.

Residential Conversions

"The city of yes will help generate obsolete office buildings."

While not explicitly mentioning residential conversions, this statement implies support for converting obsolete office buildings, which aligns with the residential conversions element of the proposal.

Town Center Zoning

"Town centers, we cannot get our way of out of a housing crisis with only the construction of mega projects. Unit by unit, we get ourselves out of a housing crisis."

This quote directly mentions town centers and emphasizes the importance of smaller-scale development, which aligns with the town center zoning element of the proposal.

Parking Mandates

"Although parking is required in many neighborhoods, it is also a marketability question and decision. To mandate parking in areas that may need may not need it. Just only adds more cost anywhere from 50 to 75,000 per unit because of the inclusion of parking, making the construction of affordable housing cheaper, they're more efficient, and more obtainable."

This quote discusses the issues with parking mandates, mentioning the added costs and inefficiencies, which aligns with the proposal's goal of removing parking mandates.


About this analysis:

This analysis is done by AI that reasons whether or not a quote from the testimony discusses a particular element of the proposal.

All the prompts and data are open and available on Github.

You can search for testimonies that mentioned a specific element in the table on the main meeting page.

When an element is explicitly stated in the testimony (e.g. "Universal Affordability Preference" or "UAP"), the analysis is accurate.

But the connection between a quote from the testimony and an element of the proposal is sometimes implicit.

In these cases, the AI might eagerly label a testimony as discussing a proposal when the connection is tenuous, or it might omit it entirely.

↗ Why are there transcription and diarization errors?
Dan Garodnick
10:50:38
Great.
10:50:39
Thank you, Mr.
10:50:39
Kelly.
10:50:40
Stay with us one sec.
10:50:41
By sharing our close-up question.
Joseph Rosenberg
10:50:44
Brian, how are you?
10:50:48
Fine.
10:50:49
From your vantage point, the town center development model, Do you see that as a product that would be heavily utilized or somewhat heavily utilized within the development community?
Bryan Kelly
10:51:08
I do.
10:51:09
I believe one of the biggest barriers to entry for emerging developers and WBE developers is balance sheet requirements for larger or mid scale projects are so intense.
10:51:23
And so to be able to develop on smaller taxpayer lots, and to create developments that have anywhere from 5 units to 50 units will generate our next generation of real estate developers.
Joseph Rosenberg
10:51:40
Okay.
10:51:40
Thank you.

Subscribe to the citymeetings.nyc newsletter

Highlights of meeting moments and curious claims every 1-2 weeks.

Read previous issues

Citymeetings.nyc pigeon logo

Is citymeetings.nyc useful to you?

I'm thrilled!

Please help me out by answering just one question.

What do you do?

Thank you!

Want to stay up to date? Sign up for the newsletter.