Two NYC Council members attend affordable housing activists’ policy briefing

New York City Council members Mark Levine and Inez Barron were the sole city lawmakers to attend the Real Affordability for All coalition’s policy briefing on the de Blasio administration’s zoning proposals Thursday.

However, staffers from roughly 40 City Council members’ offices attended, according to City Councilman I. Daneek Miller’s office. Attendees said the turnout seemed standard, given that most city lawmakers are familiar with the coalition’s position, there were no committee meetings to bring members to City Hall and Bronx lawmakers were likely invited to the borough president’s State of the Borough address the same day.

RAFA, which includes affordable housing activists but has reportedly lost support from some such groups, and the Greater New York Laborers-Employers Cooperation and Education Trust construction trade group are promoting a Floor Area Affordability Bonus program, which would offer developers a bonus or consent to build the largest residences permitted provided that half of the homes created are affordable to current neighborhood residences. Additionally, developers receiving the bonus would have to hire 30 percent of construction workers from the city and offer a state-approved apprenticeship training program, which the Greater New York LECET says would trigger greater safety standards and oversight.

A senior official from the Building and Construction Trades Council of Greater New York attended the briefing too, a source said.

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio’s administration says it has carefully calibrated its two zoning proposals so they can function in every neighborhood and real estate market. The mayor’s Mandatory Inclusionary Housing proposal would allow larger buildings in rezoned neighborhoods as long as a portion of the residences are rented at below-market rates. The second proposal, Zoning for Quality and Affordability, would allow taller homes for the elderly in low-density districts as well as reduce – and in some cases eliminate – the number of parking spaces developers are required to include while creating senior homes and mixed-income developments near subways.

The administration also says that legally it may not include labor provisions in the zoning code. However, some sources said Council members were keen to learn more. Ali Rasoulinejad, Miller’s spokesman, said the hour-and-a-half briefing ran longer than the hour scheduled.

“We were just very happy to have 40 offices represented,” Rasoulinejad said. “It shows real engagement from the Council. … A lot of people who may not have been on board with what the advocates were proposing, left thinking, ‘How can we incorporate some of that?’”

Some attendees said Council members were not confident that they could adopt the changes sought by RAFA during the current zoning review. Under the city’s land use review process, the City Council can modify the zoning proposals, but the city Planning Commission must then ensure that any changes are minor enough that they have been studied by prior city reviews. Council sources said there was little appetite to make modifications that would trigger a new review and restart the land use review process.

RAFA could press for the zoning proposal to be passed with minor changes, with the understanding that the city would later pass its Floor Area Affordability Bonus program through zoning, a special permit or some other mechanism.