{"id":272111,"date":"2026-06-19T17:39:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-19T17:39:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/272111\/"},"modified":"2026-06-19T17:39:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-19T17:39:09","slug":"op-ed-mamdani-administration-releases-an-ambitious-housing-plan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/272111\/","title":{"rendered":"Op-ed | Mamdani administration releases an ambitious housing plan"},"content":{"rendered":"

On May 26, the Mamdani Administration released its housing plan, \u201cBlock by Block<\/a>.\u201d The plan is one of the most ambitious attempts to address the city\u2019s housing shortage.<\/p>\n

The goal is to build 200,000 new affordable homes and preserve another 200,000 existing homes over the next decade. At its core, the plan recognizes that the city suffers from a structural lack of housing supply, especially at lower price points, and must simultaneously build and preserve housing.\u00a0 The plan\u2019s central tenet is its explicit commitment to scale, both in production and policy reform, paired with a willingness to revisit long-standing constraints on housing growth.<\/p>\n

The plan clearly states that New York\u2019s housing shortage as systemic. Vacancy rates are extraordinarily low (1.4% overall, near zero for lower-cost units), and decades of underbuilding, driven in part by restrictive zoning and the high cost to build, have constrained supply. Importantly, the report acknowledges that \u201cpolicy decisions have created these conditions,\u201d including land use restrictions that made large swaths of the city effectively off-limits to new housing.<\/p>\n

Moreover, the plan promises a \u201chistoric capital commitment to affordable housing,\u201d stating that, in 2026, the city will explore how it can dedicate capital funds to attract matching investment into a revolving loan fund to finance shovel-ready developments that are struggling to assemble the necessary financing.<\/p>\n

The plan is very broad, touching upon: housing preservation through a variety of tools, such as a city-backed insurance pool and tax abatements; capital repairs, vacancy reduction, and adding units to NYCHA; regulatory reform, such as code modernization and allowing modular construction; tenant protections; increasing homeownership; and reducing and preventing homelessness.\u00a0 While each of these topics is worthy of an article on its own, this article focuses on the zoning and land use aspects of the plan.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

From a zoning and land use perspective, the plan envisions increasing housing capacity through both transit-oriented development (TOD) and rezonings.\u00a0 The plan lists individual initiatives that could include: <\/p>\n

A citywide proposal that meaningfully increases the amount of housing allowed near transit across the city;
\nExtending to medium- and high-density zoning districts the \u201cqualifying residential sites\u201d framework created for low-density zoning districts as a part of the \u201cCity of Yes\u201d zoning overhaul of the Adams Administration, which grants density increases to certain sites close to transit;
\nZoning changes in conjunction with transit improvements, such as the Interborough Express (IBX) and new Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) routes; and improvements to the Zoning for Accessibility (ZFA) initiative, which uses private development to support the MTA\u2019s plan to achieve elevator accessibility throughout the subway system.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

Citywide TOD will also examine the housing potential locked up in surface parking lots required under old zoning regulations but now underutilized in areas well served by mass transit. These may be residential, commercial, or other lots built in eras with far higher parking requirements and less acute housing shortages.<\/p>\n

Also included is the potential to create more affordable homes by using the new \u201cR12\u201d zoning district, enacted as part of City of Yes and allowed by the State\u2019s lifting of the formerly applicable \u201c12 FAR\u201d cap.\u00a0 R12 districts allow up to 18 FAR of residential floor area (i.e., 18 X the lot area), of which 20%-30% would be required to be affordable under Mandatory Inclusionary Housing.<\/p>\n

Interestingly, the proposal mentions the introduction of future \u201cmicro plans,\u201d to address a planning gap between large-scale neighborhood rezonings and site-specific actions, which could consist of several blocks, non-contiguous \u201copportunity\u201d areas within a Community District, or other focused geographies that advance core neighborhood planning goals, but on a smaller scale.<\/p>\n

Further, in order to meet the ambitious housing production goals, the plan recognizes that \u201cmega projects\u201d such as Sunnyside Yards are critical, for which federal and state support is essential.\u00a0 Such projects, according to the plan, are expected to deliver more than 20,000 units of housing, along with new parks, schools, and other community amenities.<\/p>\n

Building on the City Charter revisions approved by voters last year, the plan envisions utilizing the new \u201cAffordable Housing Fast Track\u201d for City-sponsored land use actions in the 12 Community Districts where such Fast Track will apply (the districts calculated as having produced the lowest percentage of affordable housing as a percentage of new housing in the last five years).\u00a0 The Fast Track bypasses the typical ULURP process requiring City Council approval, and thus the so-called \u201cCouncilmanic Veto.\u201d\u00a0 There are concerns that this essentially disenfranchises the Council Member (and constituents) of the affected district.\u00a0 One would expect that the administration would at least consult with the Council Member on such proposals and projects.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

The plan also recognizes the potential of using City-owned sites for housing, with a target of 25,000 units.\u00a0 The plan states that by the end of 2026, the City will begin the land use review process for disposition of multiple City-owned sites.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Showing the breadth of the plan, it even touches upon historic districts which are often understandably overlooked in terms of new housing production.\u00a0 Historic districts all but prohibit new development and there are many historic districts throughout the City \u2013 some neighborhoods such as the Upper West Side are almost entirely in an historic district.\u00a0 According to the plan, the Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) is considering a range of opportunities to increase housing production in historic districts and to capitalize on opportunities to transfer development rights (TDR) from some individual landmarks, which were expanded by City of Yes. <\/p>\n

To that end, LPC will release an online map that identifies where accessory dwelling units (ADUs) can be built in historic districts and will create a dedicated team to help homeowners create ADUs on their properties.\u00a0 Further, in 2026, LPC will release a fact sheet on TDR transfers with new guidance for applicants, focused on smaller properties, with technical guidance for applicants considering a TDR transfer, including model restrictive declaration language, and consider future rules to make the LPC approvals process faster for TDR transfers.<\/p>\n

From a process standpoint, the plan targets cutting the City\u2019s \u201cpre-certification\u201d timeline for zoning and other discretionary land use actions from approximately two years to six months.\u00a0 This is generally the time that the Department of City Planning reviews the environmental filings for such an action.\u00a0 The plan envisions building on changes to New York State\u2019s environmental review law, SEQRA, that were enacted the day after the plan was released.\u00a0 The plan states that DCP will establish a new, dedicated review team that will exclusively focus on advancing most housing proposals into public review within six months.\u00a0 For very large projects that will still require longer timelines for environmental review, the City is investing in agency resources and staff to make this process as fast as possible. New staff at DCP, HPD, DOT, DEP and DPR will expedite environmental review, according to the plan.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

If successfully implemented, the plan\u2019s combination of zoning changes, public investment, and bureaucratic reform could materially increase housing supply, and reduce rents. The decisive factor will be whether the city can convert its ambitious targets into actual, delivered units, \u201cblock by block.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dan Egers,\u00a0a shareholder of Greenberg Traurig, focuses his practice on New York City land use and zoning. The views expressed are his own.\n<\/p>\n

Ed Wallace, co-chair of Greenberg Traurig\u2019s New York office, is counsel to the Citizens Budget Commission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On May 26, the Mamdani Administration released its housing plan, \u201cBlock by Block.\u201d The plan is one of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":272112,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[42705,104856,104857,104858,104859,104860,104861,104862,104863,75,84,83,9,24,63,104864,104865,104866,104867,104868,104869],"class_list":["post-272111","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-manhattan","tag-affordable-housing-nyc","tag-block-by-block-initiative","tag-bus-rapid-transit-nyc","tag-city-of-yes-zoning-overhaul","tag-housing-policy-new-york","tag-housing-shortage-crisis","tag-interborough-express-ibx","tag-land-use-reform-nyc","tag-mandatory-inclusionary-housing","tag-manhattan","tag-manhattan-headlines","tag-manhattan-news","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-nyc-housing-plan","tag-nycha-preservation","tag-r12-zoning-district","tag-transit-oriented-development-nyc","tag-urban-development-nyc","tag-zoning-reform-new-york-city"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272111","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=272111"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272111\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/272112"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=272111"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=272111"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=272111"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}