ZQA can unlock underutilized 202 parking lots turning baron asphalt into affordable homes for New York City’s low-income seniors. Only 20 ft stands in the way of turning the Bronx site in the photo below into affordable senior housing.
The City Council should make one final change to ZQA to fix restrictive rear and side yard requirements. By changing the required distance between buildings on the same lot from 60 to 40 feet, it would make it possible to build desperately needed affordable housing on the 202 parking lot pictured below and many like it across this city.
Underutilized senior parking lots are equivalent to “free” land which will save their nonprofit owners millions of dollars in land acquisition costs and thereby save precious City housing subsidies. Many of the modifications to ZQA that were agreed upon in this week’s deal between the City Council and the de Blasio Administration will benefit communities and make sense for neighborhoods. However, the 60 foot requirement between buildings on the same lot is not providing any benefit to communities and in some cases like the one on 1181 Walton Avenue in the Bronx, it just preserves an empty parking lot.
NYHC URGES THE CITY COUNCIL TO MAXIMIZE LOTS FOR SENIOR HOUSING
