The Real Affordability for All coalition released a report strongly critical of the mayor’s housing strategy, while councilmembers acknowledged improvements but pressed for more low-income units.
The administration presented new investments and new height limits for some portions of the rezoning, but most residents and stakeholders said they still strongly disproved of the city’s rezoning proposal.
It’s all but certain that Downtown Far Rockaway will soon become the second of de Blasio’s approved neighborhood rezonings.
The draft scope of work for the rezoning, released last Friday, reveals new details about the development potential of the city’s proposed plans.
It’s not the first time the city has tried to hold financial backers responsible for poor conditions and the loss of affordable housing, but advocates are encouraged by at least one bank’s early response.
The current community preference system may have its flaws, the writer says, but simply calling for its elimination is irresponsible and callous after centuries of race-based zoning.
Some participants took issue with the Department of City Planning’s argument that without a rezoning, the neighborhood won’t get affordable housing.
The City Council Committee on Housing and Buildings passed all but one of the Stand for Tenant Safety bills and a variety of other bills to safeguard tenants.
The mayor’s grand housing plan promised 200,000 affordable units. But most of them already exist.
Most of those who testified said they generally supported the De Blasio administration’s proposal to rezone downtown Far Rockaway, but asked for changes to ensure the plan truly benefited the area’s existing residents.
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