City Of Yes Zoning Overhaul Approved By Council, Clearing Path To 80,000 New Units

New York City lawmakers have approved a zoning change that enables the creation of tens of thousands of additional housing units in all five boroughs.

The measure, known as City of Yes for Housing Opportunity, passed Thursday afternoon with 31 votes in favor and 20 votes against. 

The measure will change zoning restrictions across the city for the first time since the 1960s. It eliminates or reduces parking minimums across wide swaths of the city, opens the door for developers to build larger apartment buildings close to public transit hubs and allows them to pursue office-to-residential conversions in far more buildings.

“City of Yes will forever change the course of our city’s history by bringing that dream closer to reality for New Yorkers — and it all started by saying ‘yes,’” New York City Mayor Eric Adams said in a statement following the city council vote. 

The vote is a key victory for Adams, whose administration proposed the zoning amendment and kept advancing it despite being embroiled in scandal. Its passage furthers Adams' “moonshot” goal of building 500,000 new homes in NYC within a decade. The zoning amendment also comes as the city was faced with the lowest apartment vacancy rate in 50 years and a shrinking construction pipeline.

The vote is a "significant breakthrough in terms of removing obstacles to private investment in the development of the new housing that the city so desperately needs,” Kathryn Wylde, president and CEO of business advocacy organization Partnership for New York City, said in a statement.

But the victory for Adams didn’t come without concessions. At a public hearing in July, members of the public raised concerns about his proposal to eliminate parking mandates, the safety of regulating basement apartments and preserving the character of their neighborhoods.

Those complaints reached the ears of city council members, who spent hours hashing out modifications before two subcommittee votes in late November. City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams countered Adams' proposal with her own, dubbed “City for All,” that pushed for city funding to back the zoning changes.

The two sides came to an agreement after a last-minute push across the finish line in the form of a $5B funding package, supported by $1B in state funding offered by Gov. Kathy Hochul. 

That funding agreement was critical to ensuring City of Yes actually delivers on increasing housing supply, said Carlo Scissura, president and CEO of The New York Building Congress.

“While more needs to be done, the $5B investment in necessary infrastructure upgrades and the Council’s insistence on increased affordability are huge boons, and welcome additions to the plan,” Scissura said in a statement. “On behalf of our members, we look forward to the opportunity to put shovels into the dirt and build us out of this affordability crisis and into a better future.” 

While the plan’s main components remain unchanged, the adjustments introduced in recent weeks brought the maximum number of units allowed down to 80,000 from 105,000 in Adams' original proposal.

City Planning Commission Chair and Department of City Planning Director Dan Garodnick, who was one of the key figures in City Hall negotiating the deal, celebrated the law’s passage.

“New York City’s housing crisis has persisted for so long that many assume high rents, scarce housing, and landlords holding all the cards are just a fact of life,” he said. “These critical changes in our zoning rules will help tackle our housing shortage and create the homes New Yorkers need, all while avoiding significant changes in any one area.”

Among other measures, the plan allows for developers to build some proposed apartment properties up to 20% bigger as long as the additional units are permanently affordable. Some ADUs will be permitted, with limitations if they are in neighborhoods that are likely to flood.

Three zones were created to reduce parking mandates, including eliminating developer obligations to build parking in most of Manhattan and parts of Brooklyn in Queens, while minimums were untouched in farther-flung areas. Buildings between three and five stories high are also permitted by-right within a certain distance of more transit hubs.

Smaller, shared housing models with common facilities like kitchens were re-legalized, red tape was removed for potential office-to-residential conversions and new high-density zoning districts were enacted for some central areas. 

“Today’s historic zoning reforms will help repair our history of segregation and exclusion by ensuring every neighborhood does its part to solve our housing and affordability crises,” Rachel Fee, executive director of affordable housing policy and advocacy organization New York Housing Conference said in a statement. “Together, we are creating a more affordable and accessible city for all New Yorkers.”