Hello, let’s get into today’s news at the intersection of real estate and policy:

Staten Island officials say housing fast-track districts are fresh fuel for secession.

City Council members are still railing against their loss of power in project reviews.

Fort Hamilton Mews gets the full Council green light.

In this edition we mention: Staten Island Borough President Vito Fossella, Staten Island Assembly member Sam Pirozzolo, Council members Simcha Felder, Frank Morano and Phil Wong, among others.
We Heard

Secession fuel: Staten Island Republicans on Thursday blasted City Charter changes designed to spur development in the borough, pointing to voter-approved initiatives to fast-track affordable housing projects as fresh fodder for the borough to secede from New York City.

Staten Island Borough President Vito Fossella pointed to the city’s Affordable Housing Fast Track — of which central and south Staten Island are two of the dozen districts where certain rezonings will bypass City Council review starting next year — and a shorter review process for modest projects citywide, known as ELURP, as “a double-barreled shotgun” to the communities of Staten Island. Fossella was also staunchly opposed to the City of Yes zoning changes, which ushered in new housing in neighborhoods where only one-and two-family homes had previously been permitted.

“The city’s out of touch with most of what Staten Island wants and needs,” said Fossella, “and what they don’t want is their neighborhoods to be destroyed.”

Fossella’s office said it is exploring options — such as a lawsuit — to fight the policies.

Staten Island Assembly member Sam Pirozzolo argued that the city is unfairly limiting the sway locals have in shaping development in their neighborhoods by removing the City Council from the process for certain proposed projects. The policies are a perfect example of why Staten Island would be better off on its own, said Pirozzolo.

This is another opportunity to say that Staten Island needs to go out on its own,” he said. “It needs to be separate, and we need to divorce ourselves from these crazy ideas of people who don’t live here.”

The crazy policies that would purportedly destroy Staten Island communities stem from a package of City Charter revisions approved city-wide by voters last year to create new ways for certain housing projects to bypass Council review or appeal a Council rejection.

In the case of the 12 fast-track districts, Staten Island’s Community Districts 2 and 3 created just two and five units of affordable housing, respectively, over the past five years. They’re ranked second and fifth in the city’s bottom dozen of community districts in building affordable homes. 

Just 1 percent of the city’s affordable housing was built in those 12 community districts over five years, according to a city analysis. That amounts to 724 of nearly 66,000 apartments — an average of just 12 homes per district each year. By comparison, the city’s top 12 districts, most of them in the Bronx, accounted for more than half of all new affordable housing during the same period. In a statement, the mayor argued that every neighborhood needs to do its share to build housing that’s within reach of low- and middle-income New Yorkers.

“New York’s housing crisis is not going to be solved by asking the same neighborhoods to do all the building,” said Mayor Zohran Mamdani. “Every New Yorker deserves a home they can afford, and every neighborhood must be part of delivering it.”

Political posturing: Staten Island elected officials are hardly alone in their disdain. In the week since the city released its list of 12 fast-track community districts, some Council members representing those areas — which span parts of 21 of the 51 Council districts — have emphasized to constituents that they remain opposed. With their power over certain projects in those districts diminished, public posturing is one of the few levers they have left.

“We should be working with communities to proactively support new affordable housing development, not taking local voices out of the process,” argued southern Brooklyn Council member Simcha Felder in a statement. Felder represents parts of Borough Park in Community District 12, which is on the list. “We’ve seen the disastrous results when local input becomes an afterthought and unfortunately that’s what I anticipate,” he added.

The fast track is poised to upend a political dynamic that has shaped land-use decisions for nearly 40 years. Under the City Council’s member deference tradition, an informal agreement to defer to the local member on land-use actions, a project’s fate can hinge on the local lawmaker’s support. That will no longer be the case for qualifying projects in the 12 districts. The tradition dates to changes approved to the City Charter in 1989.

The Council opposed the fast track and other charter revisions last year, calling them a power grab by former Mayor Eric Adams’ administration. That opposition has continued, though it remains to be seen how Council members will try to influence project reviews from which they’ve been cut out.

“I support building affordable housing, but I strongly object to a system that treats local review as an obstacle to be engineered around,” Staten Island Council member Frank Morano said in a statement. The Republican’s South Shore district is among the 12 fast-track areas.

Council member Phil Wong, whose central Queens district of Maspeth, Middle Village and Ridgewood is also on the list, said he resents the city’s “cookie-cutter” approach to building housing.

“A lot of plans won’t work here,” he argued. “You cannot shove these developments into my district without looking at the infrastructure. Upgrade the sewers. Upgrade the power lines.”

Rubber stamp: The City Council on Thursday gave BWH Group the final approval it needed to advance its Fort Hamilton Mews project.

The 9305 Fifth Avenue development will erect an 11-story building with 292 apartments, of which 88 will be permanently affordable for residents earning 60 percent of the AMI. 

The City Council’s land use and zoning committees approved the project on Tuesday. It was squeezed onto the City Planning Commission’s calendar for a Wednesday vote to approve last-minute modifications agreed to by Council member Kayla Santosuosso. The full Council approved the project Thursday afternoon.

Those include BWH Group committing to affordability levels through option 1 of the city’s Mandatory Inclusionary Housing program for the income-restricted units and agreeing to make nearly half of those apartments family-sized units with two and three bedrooms.

The project is expected to break ground next year, once the Staples that occupies the existing one-story structure vacates the site.

Have a tip or feedback? Reach me at caroline.spivack@therealdeal.com.

The Catch-Up
More than half of the Big Apple’s newest affordable housing units were targeted at low-income renters, as the city continues to battle a housing and affordability crisis, reports The Real Deal’s Mary Diduch.

HUD has opened an investigation into Wells Fargo’s mortgage programs that aim to boost Black homeownership rates, claiming the initiatives may violate the Fair Housing Act, reports The Wall Street Journal.

MTA Chair Janno Lieber on Thursday accused Andy Byford of going “full MAGA” while leading Amtrak’s Penn Station rebuild, reports Gothamist.

The Kicker

“If there weren’t very dramatic federal support, I don’t think that’s a particularly viable site. With massive amounts of federal support? Certainly worth the conversation for 12,000 units or more.” 

— Economic Development Corporation head Anthony Shorris talking about Sunnyside Yard at an Association for a Better New York event on Thursday