City of Yes for Housing Opportunit<\/a>y zoning text amendment, which aims to create more housing units by loosening some zoning restrictions, including permitting higher-density development in transit hubs and town centers.<\/p>\n\u201cIt\u2019s the city giving Staten Island something Staten Island does not want and cannot absorb,\u201d Fossella said of the City of Yes for Housing Opportunity.<\/p>\n
Plans for the property<\/p>\n
Fossella noted that in the 1990s, Staten Island officials fought to \u201cdownzone\u201d much of Staten Island in order to \u201cmaintain a certain character and integrity to a lot of the neighborhoods.\u201d He argues that the progress made is now being undone under the City of Yes plan.<\/p>\n
![\"Press](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/366C4S33YJADBK6PMEO3UAPM4A.jpg\")
Borough President Vito Fossella (left) speaks at a press conference addressing a City of Yes development taking place in Midland Beach at 374 Greeley Avenue on Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2026.(Advance\/SILive.com | Jan Somma-Hammel)<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd the bottom line is this one house that\u2019s been here since … the 1950s \u2014 there\u2019s a good chance will be 10 two-family homes; so 20 families will replace one family,\u201d Fossella said.<\/p>\n
Stout told the Advance\/SILive.com that there are only plans to build what he called four two-story, two-family homes; however, given that it is a flood zone, they are deemed three-story homes.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re on a block, Sanilac and Rudyard respectively, that since the 60s has been attached housing,\u201d added Stout. \u201cSo really we\u2019re completely molding to the look of the neighborhood. And the opportunity is there for us to actually build 14 homes, which we\u2019re not doing, and the opportunity is also there for us to build an apartment building, which we\u2019re not doing.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to the Department of Buildings, an application was approved in October for the subdivision of one zoning and tax lot into one separate zoning lot and five tax lots.<\/p>\n
A tax lot is a parcel of land identified for property tax purposes. A zoning lot is one or more adjacent tax lots within a block.<\/p>\n
![\"Press](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/VKF7YEYUHZC67PG43YMSS4WK7A.jpg\")
374 Greeley Avenue in Midland Beach on Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2026. The site is expected to see the development of four, two-family homes.(Advance\/SILive.com | Jan Somma-Hammel)<\/p>\n
As of publication, Stout does not have any existing plans to build anything more than the four two-family residences.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m filing to build four homes and the remaining property I\u2019ll decide to keep it, sell it, build it one day, get it stolen from me from [Mayor Zohran] Mamdani, any of the above,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Community concerns<\/p>\n
Among the quality-of-life concerns raised by Fossella and residents were parking and the capacities of the sewer system and power grid.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd we just keep banging the drum until somebody in the City of New York hears us,\u201d the borough president said. \u201cYou know, I see folks going around the city saying they\u2019re going to listen to the community. Well, we\u2019re speaking loud and clear, we don\u2019t want this. We don\u2019t want to knock down one house and put 20 houses in its place without any understanding of its impact on, again, the infrastructure, the school system, we don\u2019t know. This is bad policy that\u2019s resulting in a bad product.\u201d<\/p>\n
As he explained, Fossella believes the city can \u201cfix\u201d the situation if officials come out to the site and consider contextual zoning as well as the unique character of Staten Island as opposed to adopting a one-size fits all approach.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s insane what\u2019s happening and the people of Staten Island are getting screwed; homeowners are getting screwed,\u201d he said. \u201cThere is a fix, the fix is to come out here, the city agencies that did this, and say we hear you, we want to help you fix it.\u201d<\/p>\n
The borough president emphasized his belief in property rights and said that home buyers are looking for more than just a roof over their head, they\u2019re in search of a community and all that comes with it.<\/p>\n
![\"Press](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/IWD3EFUTONECZFPDKQBOGSNRD4.jpg\")
Sal Monforte (center-right), co-president of the Midland Beach Civic Association, speaks at a press conference addressing a City of Yes development taking place in Midland Beach at 374 Greeley Avenue on Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2026. (Advance\/SILive.com | Jan Somma-Hammel)<\/p>\n
Sal Monforte, co-president of the Midland Beach Civic Association, shared that he met with Stout at a land use conference on Tuesday and that the issue comes down to quality of life for the neighborhood.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy main concern is the power,\u201d said George Tormo, president of Midland Beach Civic Association.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want to thank him [Stout] for being approachable, but then again, at the end of the day we got to watch for our neighborhood and our best interests,\u201d added Tormo.<\/p>\n
Stout confirmed that he spoke with the two men on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
The future of Staten Island<\/p>\n
Fossella said he understands that not everyone has been monitoring the latest news regarding the City of Yes, but he encouraged residents to be aware that these impacts will eventually come to their neighborhoods.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m trying to be their [residents\u2019] voice,\u201d the borough president explained. \u201cWith all that said, folks should be aware that this stuff is coming and will happen across Staten Island because of the new city policy that we tried to stop, but the city overwhelmingly gave this to us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fossella urged residents to contact city agencies and representatives to say enough is enough and to \u201cput the brakes on what is happening.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAre we part of this city or what? People talk about now, secession, I just feel the bubblings of secession moving. This would not have happened if Staten Island was its own separate city I believe,\u201d he said. \u201cThese are the things that call into question our future and we\u2019re trying to bring attention to it every chance we get.\u201d<\/p>\n
However City Planing officials have said that the City of Yes plan was needed to address the housing shortage across New York City.<\/p>\n
\u201cNew York City faces perhaps the worst housing crisis in the city\u2019s history, and New Yorkers demand action. That is why we worked with the City Council to deliver City of Yes, a set of zoning changes to allow a little more housing in every neighborhood,\u201d a City Planning spokesperson recently told the Advance\/SILive.com.<\/p>\n
![\"Press](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/47DAIUDGWFDTTISUILHMJDAJRU.jpg\")
Borough President Vito Fossella talks with Sal Monforte, co-president of the Midland Beach Association, to address a City of Yes development taking place in Midland Beach at 374 Greeley Avenue on Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2026.(Advance\/SILive.com | Jan Somma-Hammel)<\/p>\n
Ultimately, Fossella feels that many in city government simply \u201cdo not give a damn about Staten Island.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. \u2014 Staten Island Borough President Vito Fossella joined members of the Midland Beach Civic Association…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":92883,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[9,24,63,134,136,135],"class_list":{"0":"post-92882","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-staten-island","8":"tag-new-york","9":"tag-new-york-city","10":"tag-nyc","11":"tag-staten-island","12":"tag-staten-island-headlines","13":"tag-staten-island-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92882","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=92882"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92882\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/92883"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=92882"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=92882"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=92882"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Press](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/R3J5RKLZ4VH7DGA7A3QHMWEVEU.jpg\")
This photo from Jan. 7, 2026, shows a map of the planned project for what once was a one-family residence on Greeley Avenue in Midland Beach, according to Borough President Vito Fossella’s Office.(Advance\/SILive.com | Jan Somma-Hammel)<\/p>\n