Your guide to NYC's public proceedings.
Q&A
Commissioners discuss public land use for housing and controlling local development costs
0:48:52
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127 sec
Commissioner Grace C. Bonilla requests an analysis of how using public land for housing has affected affordability and existing residents in other cities, with Commissioner Kathryn Wylde noting that New York City's own history in the 1980s provides relevant data.
Commissioner Anthony Richardson links this to the broader theme of cost control, arguing that just as subsidies make housing affordable for families, the city must lower the development costs it can control to improve its overall housing output and competitiveness.
Executive Director Alec Schierenbeck agrees to research the impact of public land use.
- Bonilla seeks to understand the potential for displacement or gentrification when public land is used for new housing.
- Richardson emphasizes that while many factors contribute to high construction costs in NYC, focusing on locally controllable costs (like regulatory processes) is essential.
- He draws a parallel between providing household rent affordability and making the city more "affordable" for development by reducing manageable expenses.
Grace C. Bonilla
0:48:52
That could be other question that I had for the staff, if at all possible.
0:48:56
If we could look at the cities that have used public land to build and what it has done to those neighborhoods from an affordability perspective.
0:49:05
But I'm also wondering what it does to folks who have grown up in those neighborhoods.
0:49:09
Are they being priced out, or are they being pushed out because of the, of the use of public land?
Alec Schierenbeck
0:49:15
Sure.
0:49:15
We can look at that.
Kathryn Wylde
0:49:16
New York City in the nineteen eighties is I was gonna say we have that.
0:49:20
Yeah.
0:49:21
We have we have all that data.
Anthony Richardson
0:49:23
Mhmm.
0:49:23
Just to connect a point, I'd say Cathy's initial comment with what Diane was just saying and the affordability conversation in general, which is that I think that in the housing world, what the idea of providing or creating affordability is somewhat rooted in the fact that there are external factors or macro items that you can't control.
0:49:53
So to the extent that you lower a household's rent, you do provide some way for them to, in other words, be more competitive or, you might say, dynamic.
0:50:06
Now, if you then translate that into New York City, as this point is being made, there are plenty of factors that will contribute to the cost to build housing in New York City.
0:50:20
But if we can lower the cost of the ones that we control, then we do the same thing we do on a household or family level, we do it for the city.
0:50:32
I the you had a chart that showed the relative competitiveness or how other cities are building more housing, and I can tell you that those the cost are the cost structures are different in those other cities.
0:50:49
So can we control everything here?
0:50:52
Obviously not.
0:50:53
But that underscores the importance of lowering the cost of the items that we can control.