Will Kitcher on personal experiences with diverse housing types in NYC and support for City of Yes zoning reforms
4:19:07
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3 min
Will Kitcher, a third-generation New Yorker and resident of Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn, shares his personal history of living in various housing types throughout NYC. He expresses strong support for the City of Yes zoning reforms, particularly the creation of missing middle housing and the removal of parking mandates.
- Kitcher emphasizes the importance of diverse housing options, including mixed-use buildings, converted homes, and small apartments, which allowed him to remain in NYC throughout different life stages.
- He advocates for repealing parking mandates, arguing that this will enable more housing construction and better use of space, especially in areas well-served by public transportation.
- Kitcher stresses the need for affordable housing options for young people moving out of their parents' homes and those unable to afford high rents or property purchases.
- Support for missing middle housing
- Personal experience living in various types of housing in Brooklyn
- Support for repealing parking mandates
- Need for affordable housing options for young people moving out
- Belief that lifting parking mandates will allow more housing to be built
- Observation that some parking lots in Sheepshead Bay are underutilized
- Assertion that developers will still provide parking where needed
- Support for additional housing near subway stations
[EXPERIMENTAL]
Which elements of City of Yes for Housing Opportunity were discussed in this testimony?
- Residential Conversions
- Town Center Zoning
- Parking Mandates
- ADU
- Transit-Oriented Development
- Small and Shared Housing
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.
Residential Conversions
"I moved into the first family of the first floor family rental with 3 roommates. That was a conversion from a single family home that had a doctor's office on the first floor. The doctor's office was removed, and I was able to live there in this mixed use house"
This quote discusses the speaker's experience with a residential conversion, where a single-family home with a doctor's office was converted into a rental unit. This aligns with the proposal's aim to make it easier to convert non-residential spaces into housing.
Town Center Zoning
"Houses above store storefronts there."
This quote mentions mixed-use buildings with residential units above commercial spaces, which aligns with the Town Center Zoning element of the proposal that aims to relegalize housing above businesses on commercial streets in low-density areas.
Parking Mandates
"Additionally, I want to come out in support of repealing the parking mandates because I believe that will allow more housing again to be built."
The speaker explicitly supports removing parking mandates, which directly aligns with this element of the proposal.
"We have a lot of parking lots and a lot of public parking. And some of it sits empty for most of the day. And with that being said, it can be more productive use"
This quote supports the idea of removing parking mandates by pointing out that existing parking is often underutilized and the space could be put to better use, which aligns with the proposal's aim to increase housing production by removing parking requirements.
ADU
"They lived in the garage above, like, behind the home at that time. I don't know if it was legal or not, but I know that there was a lot of tune the from that house for people in my neighborhood, mainly."
This quote describes a situation similar to an ADU, where people were living in a converted garage behind a main house. While the speaker is unsure of its legality, it relates to the proposal's aim to allow and regulate such housing options.
Transit-Oriented Development
"But this will allow people who are closer to the subway station And in areas like that along the Q Train and the 2 line that will have additional housing that can be close by to them and they will need to rely on a vehicle."
This quote discusses the benefits of having housing near public transit, which aligns with the Transit-Oriented Development element of the proposal. The speaker supports the idea of creating more housing near subway stations, reducing the need for vehicles.
Small and Shared Housing
"And I wanna make sure that we have the missing middle housing going forward and we get rid of parking minimum so that these opportunities are available towards people who are in the same situation I was. You're moving out of your parents' house. You want to get out. Like, you need a small place to stay. If you want some roommates, you can't quite afford to buy your own apartment."
This quote discusses the need for smaller, more affordable housing options, including shared housing with roommates. This aligns with the Small and Shared Housing element of the proposal, which aims to re-legalize housing with shared facilities and allow for more studio and one-bedroom apartments.
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.