New York City Council Approves Final City of Yes Housing Opportunity Element
NYC Council Approves Final City of Yes | Accessory Dwelling Units – For decades, NYC hasn’t built enough housing because of overly restrictive zoning rules. Meanwhile, the housing that has been built is concentrated in just a few areas. As a result, there aren’t enough homes for New Yorkers to live in, many neighborhoods are closed off to housing opportunity, and the cost of housing keeps rising.
City of Yes for Housing Opportunity was adopted by the City Council on December 5, 2024.
City of Yes for Housing Opportunity is a zoning text amendment that addresses this crisis by making possible to build a little more housing in every neighborhood. This will provide New Yorkers more housing choice and bring housing costs down. If every neighborhood contributes, we can create a lot of housing overall without overburdening any one area.
The proposal went through public review in the spring & summer of 2024, with community boards & borough presidents providing input and the City Planning Commission (CPC) holding a public hearing. In September, the CPC approved the proposal with modifications. The City Council held a public hearing in October and voted to approve the proposal with modifications on December 5, 2024.
Learn About the Final Plan
The final version of City of Yes for Housing Opportunity is expected to enable the creation of 80,000 homes over the next 15 years. It is carefully designed to work differently in different neighborhoods, and has a number of components:
Universal Affordability Preference (UAP)
In recent decades, high-demand neighborhoods have lost affordable housing and become increasingly out of reach to working families.
The Universal Affordability Preference is a new tool that allows buildings to add at least 20% more housing, if the additional homes are affordable to households earning 60% of the Area Median Income (AMI). As a result, it will deliver new affordable housing in high-cost neighborhoods across New York City to working families.
Residential Conversions
Outdated rules have prevented underused offices and other non-residential space from converting to housing. For example, many buildings constructed after 1961, or outside the city’s largest office centers, cannot be converted to housing.
City of Yes will make it easier for vacant offices and other non-residential buildings to become homes, a win-win policy to create housing, boost property values, and create more active, vibrant neighborhoods in areas that have been hard-hit by the effects of the pandemic. NYC Council Approves Final City of Yes
Town Center Zoning
New York is a city of neighborhoods, and each neighborhood is anchored by commercial corridors with shops and vibrant street life – a little town center for every community.
Modest apartment buildings with stores on the street and apartments above exist in low-density areas across the five boroughs – most of them from the 1920s to 1950s. Today, zoning prohibits that classic form even in areas where it’s very common.
City of Yes relegalizes buildings with 2, 3 or 4 stories of housing above a commercial ground floor, depending on underlying zoning. These buildings will match their surroundings and provide urgently needed homes.
Roll Back Parking Mandates
For decades, New York City mandated off-street parking along with new housing even where it’s not needed, driving down housing production and driving up rents.
City of Yes removes parking mandates across a wide area of NYC, creating the most populous mandate-free zone in the United States. Elsewhere, parking mandates are reduced, and where they remain in effect, more buildings are exempt.
Accessory Dwelling Units
“Accessory dwelling units” (ADUs) like backyard cottages, garage conversions, and basement apartments are a proven tool to support homeowners, and provide more space for multigenerational families without significantly changing the look and feel of a neighborhood. City of Yes allows ADUs in one and two-family homes in all low-density districts, with restrictions on certain types in certain areas to address concerns around flooding and context.
Transit Oriented Development
Modest apartment buildings already exist in lower-density areas of the five boroughs, most of them built between the 1920s and 1950s. However, current zoning bans new ones despite the severe housing shortage.
City of Yes re-legalizes modestly-sized, transit-oriented apartment buildings in low-density residence districts. Sites must be near transit, over 5,000 square feet, and either on the short end of a block or facing a street 75+ feet wide. Buildings can be 3, 4 or 5 stories, depending on zoning district.
These modest “missing middle” apartment buildings will match the scale and character of existing buildings that can no longer be built.
Campuses
Across NYC, many campuses, including churches and private residential co-ops, have underused space that they could turn into housing, if arbitrary zoning rules didn’t get in the way.
If existing buildings are too tall or too far back from the street, for instance, zoning prohibits new developments on the property – even if they would comply with current height limits and other regulations. Where housing is allowed, outdated zoning requires tall and skinny buildings that are out of context with their surroundings.
By removing obstacles and streamlining outdated rules, City of Yes for Housing Opportunity makes it easier to add new contextual, height-limited buildings to campuses.
NYCHA campuses are not included in City of Yes.
Small and Shared Housing
NYC banned shared housing in the 1950s and apartment buildings full of studio apartments in the 1960s. This has contributed to the homelessness crisis in the decades since, and forced people who would prefer to live alone into living with roommates.
City of Yes for Housing Opportunity allows buildings with more studios and one-bedrooms for the many New Yorkers who want to live alone but don’t have that option today, and clears the way for more housing with shared kitchens and other common facilities
These apartments are important for so many people – recent college graduates, older households that are downsizing, and everyone who lives with roommates but would prefer to live alone. Allowing more small and shared apartments will also open up larger, family-sized apartments otherwise be occupied by roommates.
Proposal Explainers
DCP created a variety of materials over the course of 2023 and 2024 to explain the City of Yes for Housing Opportunity proposal before it was approved with modifications by the City Council.
New York City Council Approves Final City of Yes Housing Opportunity ElementIn March 2024, the New York City Council voted to approve the final version of the City of Yes for Housing Opportunity proposal. This exciting news officially opens up new options for housing in the city and clears the way for more diverse and affordable opportunities.
One major aspect of this proposal is that it allows for smaller and shared apartments in residential buildings. This option today may seem unconventional, but it has been proven successful in other cities around the world. Instead of requiring individuals to find roommates or live alone in larger units, this plan offers a middle ground that fits many different lifestyles.
This change will benefit a wide range of individuals, including recent college graduates who are just starting out on their own, older households looking to downsize, and anyone.
NYC Council Approves Final City of Yes
