City Planning Commission Says Yes To Adams' Commercial Zoning Reform

The City Planning Commission greenlighted the City of Yes for Economic Opportunity zoning proposal Wednesday, clearing the penultimate hurdle for 18 commercial zoning reforms proposed by Mayor Eric Adams' administration.

The initiative now goes to the New York City Council for final approval. The proposal, which would expand the ways and places that businesses can operate, has undergone a nine-month review process. The city council has 50 days to give its final say.

“The zoning of 1961 is not serving the needs of 2024, and replacing outdated regulations with clear and sensible rules will help boost small businesses, growing industries and commercial corridors,” Deputy Mayor for Housing, Economic Development and Workforce Maria Torres-Springer said in a statement. 

The proposed policy changes include:

• Expanding the number of retailers that can operate on upper floors and above residences, as well as allowing businesses such as barbershops to be based out of homes.

• Eliminating rules prohibiting dancing, comedy and open mic nights in restaurants in commercial areas. Instead, venues will be governed based on size and occupancy.

• Reducing restrictions for small manufacturers, life sciences and indoor urban agriculture, more than doubling the space available for clean manufacturing, which has been limited to industrial areas.

• Removing the ban prohibiting retailers from operating in spaces that have been vacant for long periods, as well as establishing a process for new corner stores in residential areas. 

• Updating 1960s-era rules surrounding amusement businesses, which previously secluded them to areas like Coney Island, making more room for experiential retailers.

• Allowing the expansion of multistory warehouses in industrial zones, allowing 17,000 businesses to potentially grow.

• Increasing adaptive reuse potential, such as by modernizing loading dock rules.

“New Yorkers are tired of walking past empty storefronts, and it is a bad look when the city’s own rules are preventing us from filling them,” City Planning Commissioner Dan Garodnick said at the hearing, Commercial Observer reported. 

However, the City Planning Commission did make some tweaks to the proposals due to community concerns. To limit the loss of housing, spaces occupied by existing homes can't be converted to upper-floor commercial uses, and businesses run out of apartments are capped at 1K SF.

The economic proposal is different from Adams’ City of Yes for Housing Opportunity reform, which would pave the way for more office-to-residential conversions. That proposal will enter public review this spring.