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

citymeetings.nyc

Your guide to NYC's public proceedings.
TESTIMONY

Maulin Mehta from Regional Plan Association on City of Yes for Housing Opportunity zoning reforms

4:16:01

·

3 min

Report an issue

Maulin Mehta, Director at Regional Plan Association (RPA), expresses strong support for the City of Yes for Housing Opportunity zoning reforms. He highlights the severe housing crisis in New York City, emphasizing low vacancy rates, rising rents, and increasing housing cost burdens for both renters and homeowners.

  • Mehta cites RPA analysis showing that without increased housing production, housing costs could rise by 25% by 2035, with over a quarter million new households facing cost burdens.
  • He argues that current zoning regulations limit housing construction in many neighborhoods, even those with good transportation and job access.
  • The proposal is praised for its tailored approach, including expanded inclusionary zoning, office conversions, transit-oriented development, accessory dwelling units, and elimination of parking minimums.
  • New York City is experiencing a significant housing crisis with low vacancy rates and high demand for affordable housing
  • Current zoning regulations limit housing construction in many neighborhoods
  • The proposal will facilitate the construction of more homes across all five boroughs
  • The initiative includes expansion of inclusionary zoning, office conversions, middle-density housing, transit-oriented development, accessory dwelling units, and elimination of parking minimums
  • The proposal is designed to equitably and reasonably expand housing stock in every neighborhood
  • Without action, housing costs are projected to rise by 25% by 2035, leading to more housing cost burdens
  • The current housing deficit of over half a million units could double in the next decade without intervention

[EXPERIMENTAL]

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

  • UAP
  • Residential Conversions
  • Town Center Zoning
  • Parking Mandates
  • ADU
  • Transit-Oriented Development

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 includes significant expansion of occlusionary zoning"

This quote likely refers to the Universal Affordability Preference (UAP) element, as inclusionary zoning is a method to create affordable housing, which is the core purpose of UAP.

Residential Conversions

"enables office conversions"

This directly refers to the residential conversions element of the proposal, which aims to convert non-residential spaces like offices into housing.

Town Center Zoning

"and promoting town centers"

This directly mentions the town center zoning element of the proposal.

Parking Mandates

"and eliminates parking minimums among others"

This directly refers to the removal of parking mandates, which is a key element of the proposal.

ADU

"enabling accessory dwelling units"

This directly mentions the Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs) element of the proposal.

Transit-Oriented Development

"leveraging more transit oriented development"

This directly refers to the Transit-Oriented Development element of the 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.

↗ Why are there transcription and diarization errors?
Maulin Mehta
4:16:01
Good afternoon.
4:16:02
Can you hear me?
Dan Garodnick
4:16:03
Yes.
4:16:04
We can.
Sanford Miller
4:16:04
Yep.
4:16:05
Great.
Maulin Mehta
4:16:10
Good afternoon.
4:16:11
My name is Molly Metta, and I'm your direct at Regional Plan Association.
4:16:15
Provide remarks on the city of the US for housing opportunity zoning reforms today.
4:16:20
This proposal closely aligns housing solutions to RPA's long champion, and we split the proposal in its full scope.
4:16:27
New York City is experiencing a significant housing crisis.
4:16:30
With the demand for housing units as particularly affordable ones rising higher than ever.
4:16:34
We also face a historically low rental vacancy rate of just 1.4%.
4:16:38
This can vision is exacerbated by the lack of new housing stock in the low density areas across the city, which is a direct result of policy choices that disproportionately impact low income families.
4:16:49
The increasing number of people in temporary shelters and overcrowded conditions further underscores the pressing nature of our housing needs.
4:16:56
As a result of the housing shortage, market rate rents in New York City have increased by 36% since 2015.
4:17:02
Today, over half of all renters are cost burdened any more than 30% of their income on housing, and nearly a third of renters are severely cost burden spending more than half of their income.
4:17:12
Homeowners are also being impacted with 44% considered housing cost burden.
4:17:17
A recent analysis kitchening company for RPA, highlights how our under production of housing will negatively impact our region in the coming decade.
4:17:28
If the New York region only continues to add housing as it added at its current rate of production.
4:17:32
Residents continue housing costs rise by 25% by 2035, resulting in over a quarter of a 1,000,000 new households facing housing cost burdens.
4:17:42
The report also found that the region's current housing deficit of over half a 1,000,000 units would almost double in the next decade if we don't course correct.
4:17:50
Coron zoning regulations in the city limit the construction of housing in many neighborhoods even in places with good transportation and access to jobs.
4:17:57
Restricted zoning includes prescriptive use groups and bulk regulations, as well as excessive parking requirements among others.
4:18:03
Together, they post significant obstacles and cost building new housing and create financial burdens and limit flexibility for renters and prospective homeowners.
4:18:11
The housing opportunity proposal is designed to tackle these challenges by facilitating the construction of more homes across all five boroughs.
4:18:18
Unlike the one size fits all narrative we've heard, these initiatives are tailored to adaptable conditions.
4:18:24
The proposal includes significant expansion of occlusionary zoning, enables office conversions, reintroduces middle debt necessity, build by leveraging more transit oriented development, enabling accessory dwelling units, and promoting town centers, and eliminates parking minimums among others.
4:18:41
Together, these measures form cohesive and interconnected strategy to equitably and reasonably expand the housing stock in every neighborhood.
4:18:48
Limiting development stresses on individual communities while still contributing to critical citywide need.
4:18:55
We strongly support the city of yes for housing opportunity proposal in full and encourage the commission to do the same.
4:19:00
Thank you for your time.

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.