On Friday, Mayor Adams released the final details of his sweeping proposed set of zoning changes called “City of Yes for Housing Opportunity” — the nearly 800-page annotated document can be found here, and more characterizations of the plan by the City can be found here.

While we and other advocates pore over the voluminous document to analyze everything it contains, it remains clear it includes at least two extremely troubling provisions for our neighborhoods: (1) It would strip away hard-fought-for zoning protections for our neighborhoods that limit the size and height of new luxury condo and other residential developments, and (2) it vastly increases allowances for the transfer of air rights from individually landmarked buildings (of which there are scores in our neighborhoods), allowing for significantly increased development on nearby sites without public review or oversight. When the preliminary proposal came out last fall, we conveyed our strong concerns about these issues to City officials.

Those provisions, and those concerns, have not changed. As “City of Yes for Housing Opportunity” now begins the seven-month public review and approval process, and if these provisions remain and the package is passed, it will do grave harm to our neighborhoods, accelerating out-of-scale and out-of-character development, largely of luxury condos. 

TO HELP: