City of Yes gets final ‘yes’ from City Council

The New York City Council, led by Speaker Adrienne Adams, voted 31 to 20 to approve the City of Yes for Housing Opportunity plan, a sweeping but controversial plan to allow for more housing to be built in the five boroughs.  Photo by Emil Cohen/NYC Council Media Unit

By Ryan Schwach

The mayor’s sweeping and controversial plan to address the city’s housing crisis known as the City of Yes for Housing Opportunity cleared its final and highest hurdle on Thursday when it was approved by the New York City Council.

In a 31 to 20 vote, the City Council approved the massive rezoning measure, which advocates hope will open the door for much-needed housing across the city by overhauling the city’s zoning laws for the first time in more than half a century.

However, opponents of the plan, including a plethora of lawmakers and advocates in Queens, argue it will be an apocalyptic scenario for the city’s suburban-esque communities, and have already promised to challenge the City of Yes in court.

The final vote in the Council was always expected to be relatively close by the city legislature’s standards, thanks in no small part to Queens’ councilmembers.

Just prior to the vote, Council Speaker Adrienne Adams made an appeal to her fellow lawmakers, encouraging them to vote “yes” on the City of Yes.

“This Council cannot be the body that says no to people that need a place to live,” she said. “It is our responsibility as elected representatives, respecting our districts, as diverse and unique as each one is, to represent our districts as well as the entire city of New York, all of the good with the bad and everything in between.”

“I am tired of my community going south because their city is unaffordable for them to live in,” the speaker added. “I am tired of watching daily people on the brink of eviction and other means of losing their homes, as one of my colleagues said not to have another place to look forward to moving into, because it's just not affordable. We cannot do nothing.”

Though the Council made a number of changes to the proposal before voting on it, the package’s passage marks a major win for the mayor, whose relationship with the legislature has been rocky over the past three years.

“The greatest city in the world has just passed the greatest housing legislation in our history,” the mayor said following the vote on Thursday. “This milestone vote by the City Council will clear the way to build a new generation of affordable housing.”

Queens lawmakers were nearly split down the middle on the zoning change.

Queens lawmakers Joann Ariola, Jim Gennaro, Bob Holden, Linda Lee, Vickie Paladino, Lynn Schulman and Sandra Ung voted against the plan.

“The City of Yes threatens to change the very character of too many communities in New York City, particularly in Queens,” said Holden. “It’s really egregious that we're turning over many of the decisions to developers, so most of our accomplishments will be totally eliminated. City of Yes is a developer's dream and a neighborhood’s nightmare.”

“No” votes from councilmembers from other boroughs also stressed worries about a lack of homeownership in the plan, a lack of attention to infrastructure issues and a worry that City of Yes will only benefit developers and not working class New Yorkers.

Queens representatives voted eight in the affirmative, and seven in the negative.

Queens Councilmembers Jennifer Gutierrez, Selvena Brooks-Powers, Tiffany Caban, Shekar Krishnan, Francisco Moya, Nantasha Williams, Julie Won and Adrienne Adams voted to approve the plan.

Williams was one of several Queens councilmembers to be on the fence about the proposal heading into the vote, before ultimately voting yes.

“I heard the concerns about maintaining the character of our neighborhoods and balancing growth incrementally with fairness,” Williams said. “I convened many focus groups in Southeast Queens to dig into the original proposal. Based on that feedback, we fought for and secured key amendments to protect the character of our neighborhoods….These revisions matter. They show that the City of Yes doesn't mean yes at any cost. It means yes to thoughtful, balanced growth.”

Brooks-Powers, who serves as the majority whip, originally abstained from the City of Yes vote in committee, but voted yes on Thursday saying the modifications to the plan appropriately addressed her concerns.

Other members from outside of Queens pointed to the plan’s historic nature, and the hopes it will help pull up New Yorkers who need the assistance the most.

The City of Yes was approved with several modifications from the City Council ahead of committee votes last month through negotiations spearheaded by Council Speaker Adrienne Adams. Gerardo Romo / NYC Council Media Unit

“Its not just a policy, it’s a lifeline,” said Bronx Councilmember Shaun Abreu. “By passing this plan, we are building a stronger, fairer and more inclusive city.”

The City of Yes for Housing Opportunity is perhaps the trademark policy of Eric Adams’ dubious mayoral tenure, and one he is likely to be remembered for regardless of whether he is able to be re-elected next year.

The plan, often associated with the tagline “a little more housing in every neighborhood,” is intended to rework the city’s zoning laws through several proposals, all aimed at creating more options for development in neighborhoods from Southeast Queens to the North Bronx.

The City of Yes saw a large amount of pushback, with an outsized portion of the opposition coming from Queens.

Several rallies were held across the borough against the City of Yes, which was opposed by 12 of the borough’s 14 community boards.

In an effort to address concerns from people who felt the plan would either destroy the character of suburban neighborhoods or result in the building of few affordable units, the Council approved the plan with several modifications.

The modifications, dubbed the “City for All” by the Council, included changes to the plan’s parking mandates, transit-adjacent building and Accessory Dwelling Unit proposal. It also required the construction of more affordable units.

Originally, the City of Yes included the elimination of parking mandates, which currently require developers to build a certain number of parking spaces for each unit of housing they build.

While advocates argued it would kickstart a bulk of the housing construction under the plan, detractors argued it would hurt the city’s far-flung neighborhoods – like in Queens – whose residents depend on cars to get to where they need to go.

The compromise is a three-zone system, where some areas will retain parking mandates, others will have some mandates and some will have none at all.

In Queens, Community Districts 1 and 2, which include neighborhoods like Astoria and Long Island City, will be the only in the borough that will have parking mandates eliminated entirely. The rest of the borough will have only limited parking mandates.

The City of Yes proposal to allow for Accessory Dwelling Units, also a major sticking point from many in low-density areas, also saw some modifications.

Basement and attached ADUs will not be allowed in areas with flooding issues or in coastal zones, and backyard and attached ADUs will not be allowed in historic districts or some low-density areas unless near transit.

ADU’s may also not exceed one story, unless they provide parking on the first story. They may also not be built to take up more than a third of a backyard.

The town center zoning proposal, which would have put more housing units over one-story commercial storefronts, will also be limited to one additional story in some areas, and not allowed at all in other areas.

Also, the transit-oriented development aspect of the plan, which was intended to build housing more near transit stations, will have a smaller reach. The transit-oriented housing will only span a quarter miles from LIRR and Metro-North stations, rather than the proposed half mile. It will also be removed entirely from single-family zoning areas.

Overall, while the Department of City Planning estimated the City of Yes would have resulted in 50,000 to 109,000 new units over the next 15 years. With the Council’s modifications, that estimate was reduced to 80,000.

The 11th hour modifications ahead of the Council’s Zoning and Land Use Committee votes last on the City of Yes last month also led to $5 billion in investment from the city and state to spur development.

“Our modifications to the zoning reforms balance respect for neighborhood character, because not all districts are alike, with the city wide need to build more housing, especially to build affordable homes,” said Speaker Adams. “Our modifications prioritized creating the greatest number of homes while maintaining the fair housing principle that every neighborhood contributes in a plan that could be approved.”

But even as the mayor, the Council, housing advocates and Governor Kathy Hochul, who appeared at City Hall after the vote on Thursday, celebrated the victory, the City of Yes will likely continue to face challenges.

A coalition of community groups, elected officials and other opponents to the plan have already said they plan to bring legal challenges to stop the City of Yes through the courts.

“We believe that the basis of this entire process is false, it's phony, and it's flawed,” said Paul Graziano, a career city planner from Queens who served as one of the main organizers against the City of Yes citywide.

“We're at the starting gate, we have to continue to raise money, which we've started to do,” Graziano added.