Responding to a Citywide Rezoning Proposal

On March 25, I joined Borough President Gale Brewer and 28 Manhattan elected officials in writing to City Planning Commission Chair Carl Weisbrod about the proposed citywide text amendment entitled “Zoning for Quality and Affordability.” While this zoning proposal is meant to address a laudable citywide goal of increasing affordable housing, the proposal ignores community context and does not give communities adequate time to respond. The text amendment would increase building height limits across the board, superseding existing contextually zoned districts which were mapped with the hard work of community advocates and were often the result of hard compromises. Instead, we should be looking at strengthening the existing Inclusionary Housing program to ensure the highest amount of affordable housing and the best value for communities. Please see our letter attached.