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TESTIMONY

Jerrod Delaine, CEO of Delaine Companies and Professor at Pratt & New York University (NYU), on the City of Yes for Housing Opportunity initiative and its potential to address the NYC housing crisis

7:11:24

·

3 min

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Jerrod Delaine expresses support for the City of Yes for Housing Opportunity initiative, emphasizing the urgent need to address New York City's housing crisis. He highlights several aspects of the proposal that he believes will help increase housing supply and affordability.

  • Delaine praises the Universal Affordability Preference program as a step in the right direction to incentivize developers and investors to build more housing.
  • He supports ending parking mandates, allowing Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs), and enabling faith-based organizations to participate in housing development and community improvement.
  • Delaine stresses the importance of creating both affordable rental housing and homeownership opportunities through public initiatives and private participation, calling for urgent solutions to be implemented now.
  • The current housing situation is not good and not improving
  • Creating more housing supply will help address the housing crisis
  • Public-private engagement strategy is needed to solve housing issues
  • Universal affordability preference program is a good step to incentivize investors and developers
  • Ending parking mandates will help incentivize housing creation
  • Allowing ADUs will provide homeowners with additional revenue opportunities
  • Faith-based organizations can contribute to improving communities through housing and economic development
  • More affordable housing is needed, both rental and ownership
  • Urgent solutions are required to address the current housing crisis

[EXPERIMENTAL]

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

  • UAP
  • Parking Mandates
  • ADU
  • Campuses

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

"I think the universal affordability preference program is a good step in the right direction as a way to incentivize you know, investors and developers to build and create more housing in the city."

This quote directly mentions the Universal Affordability Preference program and expresses support for it as a means to incentivize housing creation, which aligns with the proposal's intent.

Parking Mandates

"Ending the parking mandates, another solution that will help incentivize the creation of warehousing instead of creating more parking. You know, it's it doesn't say you're not allowed to build parking on products where parking is feasible. It makes the most sense. Developers can do that, but it doesn't have to be a roadblock to stop a project because it can't build enough parking on-site."

This quote directly addresses the proposal to end parking mandates, explaining how it will incentivize housing creation and allow for more flexibility in development, which aligns with the City of Yes proposal.

ADU

"Allowing ADUs will allow some homeowners to New York City to provide more space in their property for additional revenue legally. So this gives them a path into just the right way and then a safe way."

This quote directly mentions ADUs (Accessory Dwelling Units) and discusses how they will benefit homeowners by allowing them to create additional living space and generate revenue, which aligns with the proposal's intent.

Campuses

"Faith based organizations wanna be a part of improving these communities, City of YESQ helps create a path to do so both in creating housing as well as economic development of communities. The city of yes is helping them to do so."

While this quote doesn't explicitly mention 'campuses', it does discuss faith-based organizations and how City of Yes will help them create housing and contribute to community development. This aligns with the proposal's intent to allow campuses, including faith-based institutions, to add new buildings and housing.


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?
Jerrod Delaine
7:11:24
Good evening, everybody.
7:11:25
My name is Gerard Delane.
7:11:27
CEO of the delaying companies, a real estate development company focused on housing.
7:11:33
Also a professor at Pratt and MITU.
7:11:36
I'd like to thank everybody for all the work they've done thus far and all the contributions from our fearless leader, mayor Adams, Dan Gerodnik, and the rest of the city planning team.
7:11:48
Rachel Fie at New York Housing Conference in Sham, our housing heroes.
7:11:53
So One thing we all can agree on is that housing situation is not good as it stands, and it seems to be not improving.
7:12:01
So facilitating growth is one of the goals of planning.
7:12:05
Just how do we decide how growth happens.
7:12:08
This is not an easy task.
7:12:10
And the truth is, you know, odds are we're not gonna get a 100% approval to do so.
7:12:15
So we have to make some tough decisions and and try to work together to make some bold and thoughtful decisions.
7:12:21
So a few highlight, you know, today, if you have a scarcity issue, you know, if you heard a few people say before about creating more housing supply is one of the pieces that will help us in this current housing crisis.
7:12:35
So we don't have enough housing for those who wanna live here.
7:12:37
So creating more housing will help with that.
7:12:40
The cost of housing has increased, and rent growth is not keeping up.
7:12:46
So, you know, we need a public private engagement strategy.
7:12:50
So having these public initiatives as well as private Participation will help us in solving this.
7:12:55
I think the universal affordability preference program is a good step in the right direction as a way to incentivize you know, investors and developers to build and create more housing in the city.
7:13:08
Ending the parking mandates, another solution that will help incentivize the creation of warehousing instead of creating more parking.
7:13:17
You know, it's it doesn't say you're not allowed to build parking on products where parking is feasible.
7:13:23
It makes the most sense.
7:13:24
Developers can do that, but it doesn't have to be a roadblock to stop a project because it can't build enough parking on-site.
7:13:32
Allowing ADUs will allow some homeowners to New York City to provide more space in their property for additional revenue legally.
7:13:42
So this gives them a path into just the right way and then a safe way.
7:13:46
Faith based organizations wanna be a part of improving these communities, City of YESQ helps create a path to do so both in creating housing as well as economic development of communities.
7:13:58
The city of yes is helping them to do so.
7:14:01
We need more affordable housing, both rental housing, as well as affordable home ownership.
7:14:09
We should work together to do so, both with public initiatives as well as private participation.
7:14:16
The reality is we're in a housing crisis now.
7:14:19
We need urgent solutions now, not next year, not the year after.
7:14:25
So, you know, I really look forward to this initiative moving forward, and it's all working together great more housing, both for this generation as well as future generations.
7:14:34
Thank you very much.

Follow-up discussion/remarks

QUESTION

Commissioner Osorio questions developer on UAP and parking requirements

7:14:36

·

3 min

Commissioner Juan Camilo Osorio engages with developer Jerrod Delaine to gather insights on the potential impact of Universal Affordability Preference (UAP) and lifting parking requirements on the real estate sector. Delaine provides perspective on the economic considerations for developers and the likelihood of adopting these new policies.

  • Delaine suggests that UAP needs to offer sufficient economic incentives to be widely adopted by developers, comparing it to the previous 421A tax abatement program
  • Regarding lifting parking requirements, Delaine indicates that developers would likely reinvest savings into affordable housing through programs like 45-x
  • The developer does not foresee negative responses from the sector to these proposed changes
  • The current housing situation is not good and not improving
  • Creating more housing supply will help address the housing crisis
  • Public-private engagement strategy is needed to solve housing issues
  • Universal affordability preference program is a good step to incentivize investors and developers
  • Ending parking mandates will help incentivize housing creation
  • Allowing ADUs will provide homeowners with additional revenue opportunities
  • Faith-based organizations can contribute to improving communities through housing and economic development
  • More affordable housing is needed, both rental and ownership
  • Urgent solutions are required to address the current housing crisis

[EXPERIMENTAL]

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

  • UAP
  • Parking Mandates
  • ADU
  • Campuses

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

"I think the universal affordability preference program is a good step in the right direction as a way to incentivize you know, investors and developers to build and create more housing in the city."

This quote directly mentions the Universal Affordability Preference program and expresses support for it as a means to incentivize housing creation, which aligns with the proposal's intent.

Parking Mandates

"Ending the parking mandates, another solution that will help incentivize the creation of warehousing instead of creating more parking. You know, it's it doesn't say you're not allowed to build parking on products where parking is feasible. It makes the most sense. Developers can do that, but it doesn't have to be a roadblock to stop a project because it can't build enough parking on-site."

This quote directly addresses the proposal to end parking mandates, explaining how it will incentivize housing creation and allow for more flexibility in development, which aligns with the City of Yes proposal.

ADU

"Allowing ADUs will allow some homeowners to New York City to provide more space in their property for additional revenue legally. So this gives them a path into just the right way and then a safe way."

This quote directly mentions ADUs (Accessory Dwelling Units) and discusses how they will benefit homeowners by allowing them to create additional living space and generate revenue, which aligns with the proposal's intent.

Campuses

"Faith based organizations wanna be a part of improving these communities, City of YESQ helps create a path to do so both in creating housing as well as economic development of communities. The city of yes is helping them to do so."

While this quote doesn't explicitly mention 'campuses', it does discuss faith-based organizations and how City of Yes will help them create housing and contribute to community development. This aligns with the proposal's intent to allow campuses, including faith-based institutions, to add new buildings and housing.


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
7:14:36
Great.
7:14:36
Thank you.
7:14:37
Thank you very much for that.
7:14:39
And thank you for being here with us.
7:14:41
But before you go, Commissioner Asorio has a question for you.
Juan Camilo Osorio
7:14:45
Thank you, Jared.
7:14:45
Can you still hear me?
UNKNOWN
7:14:50
One moment.
7:14:50
Let's just reestablish the connection with them.
Dan Garodnick
7:14:53
Thank you.
7:15:05
Well, he's coming back.
7:15:06
I will just note that Joe Rosenberg will be up next.
7:15:10
Are we gonna be able to reestablish?
Jerrod Delaine
7:15:12
Yes.
7:15:13
We are still here.
Dan Garodnick
7:15:17
Are you there?
Jerrod Delaine
7:15:18
Yes.
7:15:19
Can you hear me?
Dan Garodnick
7:15:20
Oh, okay.
7:15:20
Great.
7:15:21
We can hear you.
Juan Camilo Osorio
7:15:21
Excellent.
7:15:22
Thank you.
7:15:22
Thank
Kyle Jeremiah
7:15:22
you, sir.
Juan Camilo Osorio
7:15:23
Thank you so much for your testimony and and for your work.
7:15:26
Great to see you.
7:15:26
I have a question.
7:15:27
So it's for us, it's really important to hear directly from developers like yourself in terms of the extent to which the zoning tax amendment can actually require things.
7:15:37
We are very aware of the fact that imposing additional requirements may move the market in different ways.
7:15:44
So given your enthusiasm for UAP and the fact that developers who may want to take advantage of different types of incentives within the housing for opportunity, a set of interventions or changes.
7:16:02
May or may not use UAP.
7:16:04
Do you think that your sector would necessarily risk fund negatively to a requirement to use UAP whenever a developer wants to use housing especially, of course, if it's using the state incentive.
Jerrod Delaine
7:16:19
The the limits with the mandatory inclusionary program previously is it wasn't it wasn't rich enough in short to go the extra mile to do the affordable housing that you took on the additional regulation of housing on the property, but the long term profits get limited.
7:16:38
So because it wasn't enough of a bonus versus 421A, the entire building got a property tax abatement, thought it was meaningful enough to the economics to do so.
7:16:48
That's why so many people use 421A, versus, you know, the mandatory inclusion of your housing that didn't get as implemented widespread.
Juan Camilo Osorio
7:16:59
Thank you.
7:16:59
And I have another super quick question, which is again, I also share your enthusiasm for lifting the parking requirements.
7:17:05
But I'm very interested in understanding how can we maximize the public benefit.
7:17:09
And so a similar question goes to you along the lines of how do you think that your sector will respond to requiring that the amount that is saved through the parking requirements if lifted actually are invested in new affordable housing units or new housing units.
Jerrod Delaine
7:17:29
I think if the the savings that we would have on parking, we would implement I mean, there's a 90% chance that developer's gonna pursue 45 x anyway just to make sure the project is financially feasible.
7:17:43
So if that same project that we can do a 45 x where there's some affordability, we also get that benefit from the parking.
7:17:49
Then we're probably moving in the right direction.
Juan Camilo Osorio
7:17:52
So you don't necessarily see a negative response from the sector?
7:17:57
No.
7:17:58
Okay.
7:17:58
Thank you.
7:18:00
Mhmm.
Dan Garodnick
7:18:00
Thank you, commissioner.
7:18:01
Thank you, Mister Delaney, for coming back.
7:18:03
We appreciate you very much.
7:18:05
Okay.

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