Mayor Adams’ major ‘City of Yes’ initiative comes to a close – with $5B pledge, NYC Council concessions

New York may soon become the “city of yes” – sort of.

The City Council approved Mayor Eric Adams’ controversial sweeping plan to build thousands of housing units in the Big Apple in down-to-the-wire votes — after Hizzoner’s $5 billion funding promise and some concessions,

After hours of delay Thursday, a pair of council committees signed off on the huge slate of zoning adjustments, sending it to the full body for a vote early next month.

But council approval came with some caveats, such as restricting basement dwelling units in flood-prone areas and backyard dwellings in areas near transit.

It also created three zones for parking requirements – council members argued that each community had its own different needs for cars.

The Adams administration lobbied to remove all parking space requirements and remove almost all restrictions on basement and backyard apartments when adding new housing units.

Additionally, the mayor, who has made zoning changes a cornerstone of his first term, kowtowed to council members for $5 billion in funding for roads, public buildings renovations, water systems, sewage facilities and more.

Nevertheless, Adams praised the development.

“I never go into negotiations expecting I’m going to get everything I want,” he told reporters after the vote.

“I want to join the conversation where we both got a lot of work done, and we did that – the most historic housing reform in the history of the city.”

Council President Adrienne Adams called the votes “an important step” in addressing the city’s housing crisis.

“Our city’s residents need affordable and stable homes for rental and ownership, and addressing that shortage while supporting existing homeowners and renters, increasing affordability and strengthening neighborhood infrastructure is key,” Adams said. There are goals we must all share for a safer and stronger city.” Said, no connection with the mayor.

Despite the concessions, the plan is the first major change to the city’s zoning rules since 1961 and is being promoted to pave the way for builders to build thousands of new homes.

With 11th-hour delays down to minutes, neighborhood-specific details were shared between City Hall and Council before the midnight deadline, including concessions that met the wish list of pro-development “Yes in My Backyard” supporters. , but likely not enough to reassure “Not in My Backyard” detractors.

“They have successfully managed to weed out the YIMBYs and the NIMBYs,” a source with knowledge of the negotiations told The Post.

Sources said Adams was able to overcome the financial problem late Wednesday with the help of Governor Kathy Hochul, who promised an influx of $1 billion from the state over a decade.

“I’m proud to stand with them as they move forward with their plan to build a little more housing in every neighborhood,” Hochul said. “We need everyone’s support to build more housing and make New York more affordable for all of us.”

The funding will provide $1 billion for affordable housing spending, $2 billion for housing construction and $2 billion for infrastructure expansion, including expansion of sewer and other city systems that could connect thousands of housing units. was a major concern for lawmakers.

Officials said the plan’s broader impact would bring 80,000 more housing units to the city, down from the 100,000 originally projected.

But opponents from neighborhoods across the city have balked at the zoning plan, which was shelved for more than a year.

More than half of the city’s 59 community boards voted against the proposal.

The protest escalated Thursday when Laurelton resident Sherwin James made a last-ditch effort to raise his concerns over the proposal by confronting Adams in the City Hall rotunda.

“We really don’t think it’s an appropriate place for additional residents to come,” he said of the Queens neighborhood.

proponents of the planMeanwhile, they were shocked that the negotiations appeared to weaken the proposal to eliminate the mandate to include parking in all new developments.

He said the so-called parking mandate ate up space that could have been used to build new apartments.

“Truly a failure of leadership on the part of this council,” Sarah Lind, co-executive director of Open Plans, tweeted.

“More than 80 cities have lifted parking mandates citywide but NYC is once again showing that we can’t do harder things.”