This week the City Council announced a deal that paves the way for the two proposals known as Mandatory Inclusionary Housing (MIH) and Zoning for Quality and Affordability (ZQA) to be passed at a Council vote later this week. In a deal that responds to community calls for deeper affordability and tweaks zoning regulations to better tailor them to neighborhood needs, this is a enormous win for affordable housing!
NYHC applauds the de Blasio Administration and the City Council for an ambitious plan to extract affordability from a hot real estate market and reform outdated zoning regulations. Some of the affordable housing-related changes include:
- Augmenting the proposed Mandatory Inclusionary Housing guidelines with an enhanced 3rd option and a new 4th option to achieve deeper affordability.
- Modifying proposed Transit Zone maps to address parking concerns in some neighborhoods.
- Requiring the City to create a tracking system to ensure MIH affordability compliance.
- Mandating affordable housing development with the proposed re-use of any parking lots serving existing affordable senior housing within Transit Zones.
- Maintaining City Council oversight of nursing home developments in community districts with an over-saturation of nursing homes.
- Reducing proposed height increases for senior and inclusionary housing in certain zones.
- Amending proposed minimum unit square footage from 275 sq. ft. to 325 sq. ft.
- Removing proposed affordable or senior housing exemptions from the Sliver Law.
- Encouraging more income integration via increased on-site distribution of affordable units while ensuring tenant access to all on-site amenities. In addition, the City is to work on the enhancement of tenant protections.
- Committing the de Blasio Administration to maximize use of financing programs to achieve deeper affordability in MIH rezoned neighborhoods.
- Discouraging the construction of off-site affordable housing:
- Affordable housing built offsite must produce 5% more affordable housing.
- Additional height only applicable to market-rate sites which include all the MIH affordable units on the same site.