{"id":363748,"date":"2026-10-03T18:30:44","date_gmt":"2026-10-03T18:30:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/363748\/"},"modified":"2026-10-03T18:30:44","modified_gmt":"2026-10-03T18:30:44","slug":"nyc-mayor-mamdani-fast-tracks-affordable-housing-in-these-staten-island-neighborhoods-under-program","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/363748\/","title":{"rendered":"NYC Mayor Mamdani fast-tracks affordable housing in these Staten Island neighborhoods under program"},"content":{"rendered":"

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. \u2014 Two Staten Island community districts covering a large swath of the borough\u2019s Mid-Island and South Shore have been designated for the Affordable Housing Fast Track<\/a> program, a controversial initiative that will speed up approval of some affordable housing projects.<\/p>\n

The selection was announced by Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Department of City Planning Director Sideya Sherman on Thursday.<\/p>\n

Staten Island\u2019s Community District 2, which covers the Mid-Island, including Arrochar, Dongan Hills, Midland Beach, New Dorp, South Beach, Todt Hill, New Springville and more, was selected for the program. So was Community District 3, which encompasses the South Shore and includes neighborhoods such as Tottenville, Great Kills, Eltingville, Prince\u2019s Bay and Woodrow.<\/p>\n

Beginning Jan. 1, 2027, eligible rezoning proposals that develop affordable housing in the designated Fast Track districts will utilize a \u201cstreamlined\u201d 90-day public review process, which the mayor\u2019s office said will cut four months from the traditional Uniform Land Use Review Procedure (ULURP).<\/p>\n

Under ULURP, the final say on zoning approvals rests with the City Council. Under this new Affordable Housing Fast Track, that power is transferred to the City Planning Commission and the City Council has no say in the matter.<\/p>\n

\u201cNew York\u2019s housing crisis is not going to be solved by asking the same neighborhoods to do all the building,\u201d said Mamdani. \u201cEvery New Yorker deserves a home they can afford, and every neighborhood must be part of delivering it. The Affordable Housing Fast Track gives us a new tool to cut through red tape and make sure our housing growth is shared more fairly across all five boroughs. We are going to build \u2013 block by block, neighborhood by neighborhood \u2014 at the scale this crisis demands.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite cutting out the City Council from the decision process, the Fast Track preserves Community Board and borough president review and opportunities for public input, according to Mamdani\u2019s office. Additionally, the mechanism does not change environmental review requirements or landmark protections.<\/p>\n

The Fast Track is an effort to speed up affordable housing development in neighborhoods which have produced the least in the city. According to the mayor\u2019s office, the 12 Fast Track districts represent roughly 20% of New York City\u2019s 59 community districts but produced just 883 of 63,870 new affordable homes over the past five years \u2014 that\u2019s about 1.1% of the citywide total.<\/p>\n

The four community districts that produced the least each produced less than 10 affordable homes over the course of five years. Meanwhile, the highest-producing district developed eight times as many affordable homes as all 12 Fast Track districts combined, Mamdani\u2019s office said.<\/p>\n

The Affordable Housing Fast Track was approved by New York City voters in a ballot proposal last November despite local opposition from Staten Island\u2019s City Council representatives<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cLast November, New Yorkers went to the polls and delivered a mandate for affordability. We\u2019ve moved quickly to implement these new tools like the Affordable Housing Fast Track, with clear criteria for where it will apply. Soon, it will be easier to build affordable housing in the districts that have added the least \u2014 an important step in our work to deliver the housing options in every neighborhood that New Yorkers deserve,\u201d said Leila Bozorg, deputy mayor for housing and planning.<\/p>\n

The 12 districts chosen as part of the Fast Track will be recalculated every five years based on updated affordable housing production, with the next list scheduled to be issued in October 2031.<\/p>\n

The initial 12 districts were based on the rate of affordable housing production examined by the Department of City Planning between July 1, 2021, and June 30, 2026.<\/p>\n

The Affordable Housing Fast Track is part of Mamdani\u2019s Block by Block housing plan<\/a>. The administration\u2019s plan aims to create 200,000 new affordable homes and preserve another 200,000 over the next 10 years.<\/p>\n

As explained by Mamdani\u2019s office, in the months ahead, the administration will explore city-sponsored land use actions in these 12 Fast Track districts in an effort \u201cto deliver urgently needed affordable housing.\u201d<\/p>\n

To qualify for the Fast Track, \u201ca housing project must have a primary purpose of facilitating additional housing, including affordable housing, and have Mandatory Inclusionary Housing (MIH) levels of affordability or higher. Generally, this means 20-30% of the residential floor area is permanently affordable,\u201d according to the Department of City Planning.<\/p>\n

Here are the 12 Fast Track community districts from across the city:<\/p>\n

Brooklyn CD 10: Bay Ridge, Dyker Heights Brooklyn CD 12: Borough Park, KensingtonBrooklyn CD 18: Canarsie, FlatlandsManhattan CD 7: Upper West Side Manhattan CD 8: Upper East Side, Roosevelt Island Queens CD 4: Corona, Elmhurst Queens CD 5: Ridgewood, Maspeth, Middle Village Queens CD 10: South Ozone Park, Howard Beach Queens CD 11: Auburndale, Bayside, Douglaston Queens CD 13: Queens Village, Bellerose, Rosedale Staten Island CD 2: Mid-Island Staten Island CD 3: South Shore<\/p>\n

A virtual public information session will be hosted by the Department of City Planning on Dec. 3<\/a> to explain the Affordable Housing Fast Track and to address questions from residents.<\/p>\n

For more information on the Affordable Housing Fast Track, visit nyc.gov\/content\/planning\/pages\/planning\/public-review\/fast-track<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. \u2014 Two Staten Island community districts covering a large swath of the borough\u2019s Mid-Island and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":363749,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[75,84,83,9,24,63],"class_list":["post-363748","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-manhattan","tag-manhattan","tag-manhattan-headlines","tag-manhattan-news","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/363748","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=363748"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/363748\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/363749"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=363748"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=363748"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=363748"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}