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Q&A
Acting Commissioner Tigani explains delays in affordable housing development
0:30:39
·
4 min
Acting Commissioner Ahmed Tigani provides a comprehensive explanation of the factors contributing to the lengthy process of building and preserving affordable housing in New York City. He outlines various stages including land acquisition, financing, regulatory compliance, and recent policy changes aimed at streamlining the process.
- Key challenges include private land negotiations, financing uncertainties, and complex regulatory requirements
- Recent improvements like new tax abatements, City of Yes zoning changes, and updated term sheets aim to provide more certainty for developers
- Efforts to reduce regulatory burdens include the "get stuff built" initiative and the green fast track program
Justin Brannan
0:30:39
So overall what are the main drivers of why it takes so long to get affordable housing built or preserved in the city right now?
Ahmed Tigani
0:30:49
So I would say there's a couple of big pieces.
0:30:52
One, the process of development continues to be one that has parts that starts with sort of the if it's private land, the negotiation and acquisition of that private land between private partners.
0:31:04
The and then you have to decide whether or not you're going to work through a subsidized track, fully subsidized track with the city or with the state, or you move through a mixed income project that is using state or local resources.
0:31:20
Part of that decision is also whether or not your land as currently constructed, the building envelope meets the needs of what you're trying to do.
0:31:28
You may need to go get a variance, you may need to, through the Board of Standards and Appeals.
0:31:33
You may need to go get a full rezoning or a chair action or you may decide you may need to get some other change to your land.
0:31:43
Once you have and understand what your parcels are going to be, what development rights you're going to acquire.
0:31:49
Once you understand building envelope and the transaction deal shaped, then it's about getting the financing.
0:31:56
I would say that right now the financing situation, the capital market situation is difficult.
0:32:02
Lenders, you know there's a lot of uncertainty right now.
0:32:07
There was a lot of uncertainty even just recently because the city was going through some very major changes.
0:32:13
Just you know a year ago we didn't have a tax abatement that dealt with the high cost of land.
0:32:18
Just six months ago we were still negotiating building envelope changes through City of Yes.
0:32:23
Through all of that work and up and through the end of last year a lot of questions were answered for developers in the City Of New York about where they had to get what permissions they had as of right, what permissions they had to get through going through other discretionary actions.
0:32:37
And then those who come to the City Of New York to build affordable housing then starts the process of making sure that they're compliant with our term sheets, making sure that they are able to build with the kind of goals that we're trying to have them build.
0:32:51
We're also working on new term sheets, right.
0:32:53
So we had spent the last several years working with developers to understand how to get the term sheets in place that met the increased costs.
0:33:02
You know triple digit crosses from construction, labor, insurance.
0:33:08
So we were working through that information.
0:33:11
Over the last I'd say year we had over 15 meetings with 70 stakeholders just to get new term sheets right which we have, you know we've recently put out new term sheets for our ANCP program, for our preservation term sheets will go up this month.
0:33:29
Open Door is coming out.
0:33:31
So there's a long list of them, but that also gives certainty, predictability and allows them to go get money from the private industry so that we could be a gap filler to make affordable housing happen.
0:33:41
And we haven't even talked about the regulatory pieces of it.
0:33:44
So the coordination between the Department of Buildings, DEP, HPD for whether you're working with us on the subsidy side or using a tax abatement.
0:33:55
And that's where get stuff built was really important.
0:33:58
That's where the work to look at the regulatory scheme and try to figure out how to reduce the timing by 50% was really important.
0:34:05
That's where trying to figure out and pass the green fast track which allowed us to take buildings that were passive house electric design, not on historic resources and move them through environmental review that was unnecessary and save $100,000 was important.
0:34:23
So we're trying to chop through things that data has suggested is a time drain and get that out of the way and move those projects forward.
0:34:32
But if I were to sum up all of this, I would say that the process of first figuring out for new construction what kind of building you want to build, where you want to build it, what permissions you need, whether or not you are in a place where that building program works for either a city fully subsidized project, a mixed income project, an as of right project, then moving through one of those tracks to go through either the financing match, connecting yourself with as of right project, the Department of Buildings, DEP, or if you're on the coastline there's a whole other set of regulatory agencies you have to work with and then making sure that you're going through that process and checking all the box correctly.
0:35:17
The city has been very interested in understanding that regulatory map.
0:35:21
We have been trying to chop through it.
0:35:24
But those are some of the factors that