Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine on City of Yes for Housing Opportunity zoning reform
1:11:05
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5 min
Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine testifies in support of the City of Yes for Housing Opportunity zoning reform proposal, recommending approval with conditions. He highlights the potential for the proposal to alleviate New York's housing shortage by adding housing across all boroughs and increasing affordability citywide.
- Levine emphasizes the need to update the 1961 zoning code, which he sees as an obstacle to building necessary housing
- He supports key aspects of the proposal, including the Universal Affordability Preference (UAP), office-to-residential conversions, and development on residential campuses
- Levine reports that the Manhattan Borough Board has approved 15 key recommendations in the proposal, indicating broad support for addressing affordability challenges
- The city is experiencing a severe housing shortage and high rents
- Current zoning code from 1961 is an obstacle to building needed housing
- City of Yes for Housing Opportunity would help alleviate the housing shortage
- Universal Affordable Preference (UAP) would increase affordable housing stock
- The proposal would reduce roadblocks for converting vacant offices to residential units
- Changes would allow for development on large residential campuses, including those owned by faith-based organizations
- Manhattan Borough Board approved 15 key recommendations in the proposal
- The proposal could potentially catalyze the production of 100,000 new units
[EXPERIMENTAL]
Which elements of City of Yes for Housing Opportunity were discussed in this testimony?
- UAP
- Residential Conversions
- Town Center Zoning
- Parking Mandates
- Transit-Oriented Development
- 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
"The proposal for universal affordable pre affordability preference promises to significantly increase our affordable housing stock throughout Manhattan with a relatively low income target of 60% AMI."
This quote directly mentions the Universal Affordability Preference (UAP) and its goal to increase affordable housing with a specific AMI target, which aligns with the proposal's description.
"In order to ensure that UAP is maximized, I recommend that CPC be required to certify that the UAP option has been effectively used by condo and co op developments prior to eliminating the off-site option."
This quote discusses recommendations for implementing the UAP, showing that the speaker is addressing this specific element of the proposal.
Residential Conversions
"City of Yes for housing opportunity would also reduce roadblocks for the conversion of vacant and underutilized offices into residential and unlock unlock a projected 6000 units over the next 16 years."
This quote directly addresses the residential conversions element of the proposal, mentioning the conversion of vacant offices into residential units, which aligns with the proposal's description.
"Our current zoning code makes it hard to convert vacant office buildings to residences."
This quote highlights the current issue that the residential conversions element of the proposal aims to address, showing that the speaker is discussing this aspect of the proposal.
Town Center Zoning
"It leaves little housing next to some transit hubs, and prevents apartments from being built on top of stores in some commercial districts."
This quote addresses the issue of limited housing in commercial areas, which the Town Center Zoning element of the proposal aims to address by allowing housing above businesses in commercial areas.
Parking Mandates
"It prioritizes construction of parking over apartments."
This quote directly addresses the issue of prioritizing parking over housing, which the removing parking mandates element of the proposal aims to address.
Transit-Oriented Development
"It leaves little housing next to some transit hubs"
This quote indirectly references the issue of limited housing near transit, which the Transit-Oriented Development element of the proposal aims to address.
Campuses
"Lastly, our residential comp our large residential campuses on sites such as those owned by faith based organizations. May have development rights today, but with zoning constraints that because of contextual constraints, quality housing, prevent quality housing from being built on these campuses."
This quote directly addresses the Campuses element of the proposal, discussing the current constraints and the potential for development on faith-based organization campuses.
"The proposals and city of yes for housing. Would allow shorter bulkier buildings to be built on these campuses while aligning distance between building between buildings Excuse me, with state law in establishing maximum lot coverage to maintain open space."
This quote further elaborates on the proposed changes for campus development, which aligns with the Campuses element of the City of Yes for Housing Opportunity proposal.
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.