A City Council committee is set to vote this Thursday on Mayor Eric Adams’ controversial “City of Yes” package of zoning changes to promote more housing construction in the five boroughs.
The council’s Subcommittee on Zoning and Franchises will discuss the mayor’s “City of Yes for Housing Opportunity” plan during a meeting scheduled for 11:15 a.m. Nov. 21. According to a report by Politico, the council committee is expected to vote on a final amended version of the plan worked out between the two sides of City Hall.
Adams, during his weekly news conference Tuesday, expressed confidence that his office would reach a deal with the council.
“I think we can land a plane on the City of Yes,” Adams said, adding that First Deputy Mayor Maria Torres-Springer and City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams’ teams are having “good healthy conversations. And we want to we want to get this done for the people of the city.”
If City of Yes passes the committee, the full council will likely vote on it during a Dec. 5 meeting.
The sweeping zoning plan includes a suite of proposals aimed at spurring a little more housing production in every corner of the Big Apple by updating decades-old rules. Those proposals include doing away with a mandate that new construction include off-street parking, allowing homeowners to erect accessory-dwelling units on their properties and giving developers the chance to build at least 20% more housing in construction projects as long as it is affordable.
The plan lawmakers vote on Thursday will likely be reworked to assuage council members’ concerns with some of the proposals. At a marathon two-day hearing last month, some council members took issue with eliminating the parking mandates, especially in parts of the city that do not have much access to public transit, and adding more housing to parts of the city with aging infrastructure.
The council pitched its own housing plan, meant to accompany City of Yes, earlier this month. That “City for All” scheme boasted proposals like requiring developers to build more deeply affordable housing in projects greenlit under City of Yes and putting more dollars toward improving infrastructure in neighborhoods touched by the changes.
