Note: City of Yes for Housing Opportunity is, as described on this nyc.gov page, “a zoning reform proposal that would address the housing crisis by making it possible to build a little more housing in every neighborhood.” Opponents of the plan dislike how it would override current, custom-made zoning in favor of across-the-board allowances.

The proposal began its public review process last spring, via community boards and borough presidents. On Wednesday, September 25, it goes before NYC’s City Planning Commission for a vote (click here for details about this public meeting). If passed, City of Yes for Housing Opportunity advances to the City Council for a vote.

On September 18, local preservationist group Save Chelsea answered an open call for comments by sending a letter detailing its position on City of Yes. Addressed to NYC Department of City Planning Chair Daniel Garodnick and cc’d to several local elected officials, the letter will be part of the public record at September 25’s City Planning Commission meeting.

The online form for public comments is normally closed as of  11:59pm, the week before the date of vote. Regarding City of Yes, an exception is being made that allows comments to be submitted electronically up to midday on Tuesday, September 24. To comment, click here, then select “Borough: Citywide” followed by “Project: N 240290 ZRY – City of Yes for Housing Opportunity.” (On that form, you may also access instructions for mailing or delivering your written comments.)

The following, presented with the permission of Save Chelsea, is a reproduction of their September 18, 2024 letter, submitted via the online form referenced in the above paragraph a well as via USPS delivery.

Re:    # N240290ZRY – City of Yes for Housing Opportunity

Dear Chair Garodnick:

Save Chelsea opposes City of Yes for Housing Opportunity for failing to require construction of affordable housing and encouraging destruction of the affordable housing we have.

Allowing development rights to be transferred as never before will put a target on the backs of existing, relatively affordable apartment buildings. The more floor area developers can build in their place, the more incentive they will have to treat them as teardowns for bigger buildings. It is not just the replacement buildings that will be larger; the luxury apartments they contain will as well—so much so that the new buildings will often include fewer units than those they replace. We can expect to see more of what’s happening in other sought-after neighborhoods like the Upper East Side that are losing housing units even as new residential buildings go up.

Just one of many Chelsea sites vulnerable to this process is the east side of Eighth Avenue between 15th and 16th Streets, where the entire blockfront consists of eight matching 5-story buildings from 1905 that contain 110 relatively affordable walk-up units in a mix of sizes. The ease with which City of Yes would allow midblock sites to transfer development rights to avenues—with no affordable housing requirement—would doom these buildings. The larger and more luxurious market-rate apartments that would inevitably be built on their site would increase Chelsea’s average housing cost. They would also increase physical density and diminish light and air, quite possibly while reducing the overall number of housing units.

The sole City of Yes initiative to reward creation of affordable housing, the Universal Affordability Preference, would have a similar effect in particularly sensitive special zoning districts. Three early 20th-century buildings between the High Line and Tenth Avenue just north of 22nd Street stand in the Special West Chelsea Zoning District. They hold 29 apartments that aren’t rent-stabilized but fall below Chelsea’s median rents for apartments of the same size. Under City of Yes, these buildings could be demolished and replaced by one containing far fewer, astronomically more expensive and sprawling modern apartments with High Line views and only the handful of affordable apartments needed to satisfy the program’s 20%-affordability requirement. The result would be a dramatic net increase in housing cost. City of Yes would allow the new building to be 45 feet taller than now permitted under an 80-foot height limit that respects the low-rise Chelsea Historic District across Tenth Avenue. The new building could be over one-and-one-half times that height. On one side it would dwarf the historic district and on the other it would rob the High Line of light and open space that the special zoning district was specifically created to preserve. The profit motive to build taller in this view-rich area would prove irresistible, with terrible consequences for both housing costs and neighborhood character.

City of Yes’s pursuit of “a little more housing in every neighborhood” sounds equitable but whitewashes a destructively simplistic, broad-brush approach and a developer-driven strategy to wring yet more profit from already overdeveloped neighborhoods. If something has to give in order for the city to produce more affordable housing, why must it be the common good? Why not instead require that every new apartment building include a percentage of affordable units, as other municipalities do? The entire notion that building more market-rate housing will relieve demand and lower housing costs for all has been debunked by repeated studies.

Chelsea’s community district has produced more housing than any other in Manhattan in recent decades, including affordable housing. We are, as Community Board 4’s letter to you states, “the Neighborhood of Yes.” No one-size-fits-all fix is needed here. It will only break a functioning community-driven approach that should be preserved and made a model for the rest of the city.

Sincerely,

Pamela Wolff, President, Save Chelsea

cc: NYC Council Member Erik Bottcher, NYS Senator Brad Hoylman-Sigal, Congressman Jerry Nadler, Assembly Member Tony Simone, Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine

NOTE: The views expressed by our Guest Opinion writers are not necessarily those of Chelsea Community News.

—END—

ChelseaCommunityNews.com (CCNews) is an independent, single-owner online newspaper providing news, arts, events, and opinion content to Manhattan’s Chelsea community and its adjacent areas (Flatiron/NoMad and Meatpacking Districts, Hudson Yards, Hell’s Kitchen, Broadway/Times Square, and the Penn Station area).  Our editorial content is made possible by advertising revenue, grants, quarterly pledges of support, and voluntary reader donations (click here for our GoFundMe campaign). To join our subscriber list, click here to receive ENewsletters containing links to recently published content–as well as an occasional “Sponsored Content” email featuring an advertiser’s exclusive message. 

ChelseaCommunityNews.com is a member of the New York Press Association (NYPA) and the Empire State Local News Coalition. Our content is collected for placement in the United States Library of Congress’ LGBTQ+ Studies Web Archive. (“We consider your website to be an important part of  the historical record,” read a July 26, 2019 email.) Our freelance reporters have been recognized by NYPA’s annual Better Newspaper Contest, with Honorable Mention wins for Best News or Feature Series  (2021, 2023). CCNews is a three-time winner in the Coverage of the Arts category (First Place and Honorable Mention, 2022 and Third Place, 2023).

PLEASE SUPPORT LOCAL JOURNALISM: HELP CHELSEA COMMUNITY NEWS THRIVE BY FREQUENTLY  VISITING THIS WEBSITE TO READ OUR ARTICLES AND CLICK ON THE ADVERTISEMENTS.

Questions? Comments? Want to Place an Advertisement or Make a Donation? Email Founder/Editor Scott Stiffler at scott@chelseacommunitynews.com.