Committee on Land Use

Every year, the Mayor must produce a Citywide Statement of Needs relating to the opening, expansion, reduction, or closing of city facilities. Not every capital investment the City makes in neighborhoods and infrastructure, however, counts as a city facility. This bill would require the Mayor to add an appendix to the Statement of Needs consisting of a list and explanation of proposed capital projects anticipated for the next two fiscal years, which could include things such as property acquisitions and investments in streets, bridges and tunnels. The appendix would not include projects already listed in the Statement of Needs or capital projects relating to fencing vacant lots, filling sunken lots, or acquiring furnishings, machinery, apparatus or equipment.

This bill would require the Department of City Planning (DCP), in collaboration with the Department of Buildings, the Department of Parks and Recreation and the Department of Transportation, to conduct a study on hostile architecture in New York City to determine the extent of hostile architecture and compliance with the City Zoning Resolution’s requirements for seating in public plazas. This bill would also require DCP to report the findings of the study to the Mayor and the Speaker of the Council and post the report on its website within 18 months after the effective date of the local law.

This bill would set the maximum citywide percentage of studio apartments in city-funded projects to construct rental units for older adults. The maximum percentage would be 50%.

This bill would require the Department of City Planning (DCP), or if the City Planning Commission (CPC) is not the lead agency, the lead agency, to report on the transportation impacts in areas affected by neighborhood rezonings. Each study would require a comparison of the impacts in existence at the time of the study to the potential impacts identified in the final environmental impact statement (EIS) approved by the City Planning Commission in connection with such rezoning. If there are significant disparities between the impacts identified in the study and those identified in the EIS, DCP or the lead agency shall make recommendations on how to amend the CEQR Technical Manual to more accurately forecast such impacts in future land use actions. As part of that report, DCP or the lead agency would be required to discuss whether a vehicle miles traveled model would more accurately and usefully capture project impacts. The bill would require DCP or the lead agency to submit such studies and reports four years and ten years after final approval of a neighborhood rezoning.

This bill would clarify the findings that the Board of Standard and Appeals must make to grant modifications to the use, bulk, and parking regulation in the city’s zoning resolution for projects seeking to build affordable housing. Currently, under the first finding of the fast-track action for affordable housing projects, BSA only has to analyze the ownership structure of the proposed development and does not have to evaluate the number of affordable units proposed or their level of affordability. The bill would clarify that at least 50 percent of the dwelling units in the proposed affordable housing project must be income-restricted units and that the income restriction cannot exceed 120 percent of the area median income. The bill would further require that BSA specify in its decision the number of affordable units that the proposed residential project will have, the income restrictions for the affordable units, and when the affordable units are projected to be occupied.

This bill would clarify that the affordability options selected by the City Council for mandatory inclusionary housing sites, based on the options provided for in the City’s zoning resolution, are not subject to the review of the affordable housing appeals board.

This bill would require an agency of the Mayor’s choosing to include environmental mitigation strategies among the commitments tracked as part of the publically accessible online database tracking commitments made in relation to uniform land use review applications pursuant to section 206 of the Charter.