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TESTIMONY

Emanuel Kokinakis from MEGA Contracting Development on the City of Yes proposal's impact on affordable housing development

12:19:45

·

140 sec

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Emanuel Kokinakis, a development principal at MEGA Contracting Development, expresses strong support for the City of Yes proposal. He highlights how the proposal would streamline the development process for affordable housing projects and improve financial feasibility for mixed-income developments, particularly in the outer boroughs.

  • Emphasizes that the proposal would eliminate the need for time-consuming and resource-intensive Uniform Land Use Review Procedure (ULURP) rezoning processes for 100% affordable projects
  • Points out that the current 485-x tax break alone is insufficient for financial feasibility, but the City of Yes proposal would enable mixed-income development without additional city subsidies
  • Commends the parking benefits in the proposal, which would make previously infeasible projects viable
  • The City of Yes proposal is necessary and beneficial for affordable housing development
  • Current provisions have required unnecessary ULURPs and rezonings for 100% affordable projects
  • The proposal will allow for mixed income development, generating low income affordable housing without city subsidy
  • The current 485x tax break alone is not sufficient for financial feasibility of new developments in outer boroughs
  • The proposal will benefit 100% affordable units providing truly affordable low income housing
  • Parking benefits in the proposal will make previously infeasible projects feasible

[EXPERIMENTAL]

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

  • UAP
  • 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

"This city of yes proposal will allow for mixed income development, which will generate low income affordable housing, without the new to city subsidy."

This quote references the UAP element, which allows for additional housing if a portion is affordable. The speaker is indicating that this proposal will enable the creation of affordable housing without city subsidies, which aligns with the UAP concept.

Parking Mandates

"So we we thank you for taking on this endeavor, and we'll conclude my testimony."

While this quote doesn't explicitly mention parking, it comes immediately after the speaker mentions parking benefits, indicating support for the proposal including the parking aspect.

"So we absolutely are for this proposal and think that also the parking benefits, which render a lot of projects infeasible, will now become fusible."

This quote directly addresses the parking element of the proposal, indicating that removing parking mandates will make previously infeasible projects feasible.


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?
Emanuel Kokinakis
12:19:45
Hi.
12:19:46
Good afternoon.
12:19:48
Good evening.
12:19:48
I'm sorry.
12:19:49
I'm as
Dan Garodnick
12:19:50
We've lost track too.
12:19:51
It's okay.
12:19:52
I I know.
Emanuel Kokinakis
12:19:53
It's been a long day, and I I'd like to commend the commissioners for your service and and think city planning for undertaking this endeavor.
12:19:59
I think This is an absolutely necessary endeavor.
12:20:02
My name is Emmanuel Kokonakis.
12:20:04
I'm with mega contracting development.
12:20:06
We are an affordable housing builder and developer.
12:20:09
Having do doing this for 3 decades in New York City.
12:20:14
A couple points that I wanna raise given the hour.
12:20:17
I don't wanna repeat what's already been said.
12:20:19
But under the current provisions here, we've undergone U Alerts and rezoning and pretty much every borough of the city for a 100% affordable projects that had this been adopted would not have been necessary.
12:20:36
So that's time, city resources, and money that could have gone to developing additional affordable housing for these a 100% affordable projects.
12:20:46
Had this been adopted sooner.
12:20:48
I think we're facing a very unique time where, unfortunately, development for workforce market rate housing and middle income and low income affordable housing.
12:21:03
Is that a precipice where the current tax breaks, the 485 x is currently adopted, is in itself not enough to move the needle for financial feasibility of new developments, particularly in the boroughs.
12:21:18
This city of yes proposal will allow for mixed income development, which will generate low income affordable housing, without the new to city subsidy.
12:21:26
It is absolutely gonna be taken advantage of, but without it, the 45 x alone would not support financial feasibility for development in the outer boroughs.
12:21:38
It will absolutely be benefit a 100% affordable unit that are going to provide truly affordable low income, affordable housing.
12:21:47
So we absolutely are for this proposal and think that also the parking benefits, which render a lot of projects infeasible, will now become fusible.
12:21:59
So we we thank you for taking on this endeavor, and we'll conclude my testimony.

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