For page 8 of the Thursday, July 31st print edition of the New York Post, (and online HERE, in a piece titled ” Sky-scraping Billionaires’ Row-style towers invade uptown NYC enclave — and locals are fuming,”) reporter Joyce Cohen examines a question many New Yorkers are asking:
If we are in a housing crisis and need to create supply, why is the City not encouraging more units for families, but instead accommodating luxury investment properties?
While our “with action” proposal for our Zoning Text amendment would likely yield 1,400 units of housing, the Department of City Planning continues to ignore the application, despite Extell, the developer’s proposal to construct approximately 1,000 units fewer on the same site.
Perhaps coincidentally, the piece was published just nine days after Spectrum News, NY1 published “Mayor Adams Rakes in Cash from Real Estate,” which explicitly identifies that “The largest donation came from the head of Extell Development, who gave $250,000.” Read that article HERE.
Recently, citing the affordability crisis, Mayor Adams pushed his suite of sweeping zoning changes under the umbrella of “City of Yes” through the Department of City Planning (DCP) approval. DCP is overseen by a 13-member panel led by their director, Dan Garodnick, who serves as the Chair of City Planning. The Chair of City Planning reports directly to the Mayor. (NYC Organizational Chart below).
