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\u201cI\u2019m going to vote yes and maintain some kind of leverage on the project moving forward,\u201d City Councilmember Vickie Paladino told City Limits of the project. (Gerardo Romo \/ NYC Council Media Unit)<\/p>\nA residential housing project in Bayside, Queens, is winning the support of housing-skeptical Councilmember Vickie Paladino due the threat of a new voter-approved appeals process that could override her objections.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m going to vote yes and maintain some kind of leverage on the project moving forward,\u201d City Councilmember Vickie Paladino told City Limits of the project. (Gerardo Romo \/ NYC Council Media Unit)<\/p>\n
One person\u2019s dream is another\u2019s nightmare.<\/p>\n
In Bayside, Queens, a proposal to build 248 apartments\u2014a mix of market rate and affordable homes, plus long term care units for the elderly\u2014is upending the politics of housing development.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The project is heralded by pro-housing groups, despite strong opposition from Republican Councilmember Vickie Paladino, whose district it\u2019s planned for.<\/p>\n
Yet the housing-averse Paladino voted to advance the proposal <\/a>at 217-14 24th Ave.\u2014which she does not support\u2014under threat of an override from the city\u2019s new affordable housing appeals board, which voters created by passing a ballot measure in November 2025.<\/p>\n Paladino said that the new appeals board, which can override a Council decision that rejects new affordable housing, pushed her to accept a version of the project to maintain negotiating power.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m really not happy about any of this, but this is what the props were designed for\u2014to force our hand on unpopular projects,\u201d said Paladino in a statement to City Limits before Tuesday\u2019s Council meeting. \u201cI\u2019m going to vote yes and maintain some kind of leverage on the project moving forward.\u201d<\/p>\n The plan, approved by the City Council later that afternoon, could signal how new land use procedures in New York City are upending traditional housing politics. Before voters passed <\/a>three housing-related ballot measures last year, lawmakers would often exercise \u201cmember deference\u201d\u2014where the rest of the Council would back whatever decision a local member made about a land use change in their district.<\/p>\n Most Council members were opposed <\/a>to the ballot measures, which they said would hurt their ability to negotiate benefits for their districts in land use deals.<\/p>\n But affordable housing groups, as well as the Charter Revision Commission that crafted the proposals, said member deference has led to less housing being built, and fewer housing projects ever getting proposed in districts with Council members who do not want new development.\u00a0<\/p>\n The ballot measures passed as the city faces its biggest housing shortage<\/a> in several decades, fueling both rising rents and increased homelessness.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThese were intended to stop Council members from blocking all new housing out of hand. We\u2019re now seeing that change,\u201d said Annemarie Gray, executive director of the yes-in-my-backyard (YIMBY) group Open New York. \u201cNo neighborhood is too rich for affordable housing and here is a Council member who otherwise is saying they would have voted no, who now has to contend with a new landscape.\u201d<\/p>\n The appeals board convenes the mayor, City Council speaker, and borough president, who can advance an affordable housing project that the Council rejects if it has support of two out of three board members. Queens Borough President Donovan Richards expressed support for the project in his own review.<\/p>\n \u201cOne of our number one priorities is to build as much affordable housing in every single neighborhood as possible. We made that clear to Councilmember Paladino,\u201d said Council Speaker Julie Menin in a press conference Tuesday.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is always better when we can get Council members to be supportive of the project because if it goes to the appeals board that member\u2019s views are really not necessarily going to be incorporated. That particular project made a lot of sense to do,\u201d said Menin.<\/p>\n Under the regime of the appeals board, it appears just the threat of an override might be enough to get reluctant Council members to the negotiating table.<\/p>\n \u201cI think it does change the dynamics around new development, and we\u2019re going to have to feel it out as we go along. I think the goal now is to work towards ensuring new developments are as sensitive as possible to the neighborhood, and if you say yes to the more reasonable projects you\u2019ll have more credibility to say no when something genuinely bad comes around,\u201d said Paladino in a statement to City Limits.<\/p>\n The eight-story building by Barrone Management and Apex Development will bring 183 units, 55 which will be affordable housing available to households making between $71,000 and $132,000, depending on the number of bedrooms. An additional 65 units will be long term care units for seniors.<\/p>\n A required racial equity report for the project suggested it will further the city\u2019s fair housing goals in a neighborhood that is wealthier and whiter than the city as a whole, and has few existing affordable housing options. Paladino\u2019s Northeast Queens district produced just 51 units of affordable housing from 2014 to 2023, according to data from the New York Housing Conference, ranking eighth of the city\u2019s 59 Council districts.<\/p>\n Paladino said she received many more calls about developments in her district since the ballot measures passed.<\/p>\n \u201cThe biggest challenge is going to be helping constituents understand exactly what has changed here,\u201d Paladino said in a statement. \u201cThere\u2019s going to be developments happening that would\u2019ve maybe been a hard no from me in the past.\u201d<\/p>\n Mayor Zohran Mamdani has called for more housing production and the creation of 200,000 affordable homes in the next 10 years. \u201cI\u2019m encouraged to see this project advancing, and we\u2019ll have more to share soon about how we plan to use every tool available to deliver deeply affordable housing\u2014faster, at scale, and in every corner of our city,\u201d the mayor said in a statement to City Limits.<\/p>\n More change could be coming as developers and neighborhoods wrestle with the rollout of the new land use procedures voters approved in the fall: last week, a project in the Morris Park neighborhood of the Bronx became the first to utilize an \u201cexpedited\u201d land use review process<\/a><\/p>\n Next fall, another \u201cfast track<\/a>\u201d land use review will go live in the 12 community districts that built the least affordable housing.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is just the beginning of us really seeing how many new projects are going to get built in a landscape where the balance of power is different,\u201d said Gray.<\/p>\n To reach the reporter behind this story, contact [email\u00a0protected]<\/a>. To reach the editor, contact [email\u00a0protected]<\/a><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/citylimits.org\/wp-content\/plugins\/trx_addons\/components\/lazy-load\/images\/placeholder.png\")
A rendering of the eight-story development planned for 217-14 24th Ave. in Queens. (Credit: BMBT LLC via Department of City Planning)<\/p>\n