We the People: We do not want an accidental skyline

Mayor de Blasio is moving with great speed to make sure a plan for affordable housing and other objectives is in place before the next election cycle. The plan, “Zoning for Quality and Affordability” (ZQA), will change zoning rules throughout Brooklyn, especially in economically challenged neighborhoods.

It is intended to spur new development to provide for growing populations with affordable housing. ZQA also has provisions to improve the quality of the design used to build that housing. Nobody criticizes the “quality” portion of the encompassing zoning law text amendment but ZQA subsidizes construction of quality affordable units of housing and cuts out parking requirements while raising maximum building heights and envelopes in most cases.

A second correlated proposal is “Mandatory Inclusionary Housing,” which will require 25 to 30 percent of new units in re-zoned areas to go to low-income tenants. Its formula is designed to ensure that people who actually need affordable housing actually get units at rents they can afford. In order to qualify, the applicant for the affordable unit will have to earn a percentage of the median income of the neighborhood where the new construction is planned but the desirable reduced rent will not change if the apartment renter earns significantly more income 10 years after he or she takes possession of the affordable unit.

The NYC Department of Housing Preservation and Development will supervise implementation of the protocols and formulas that will determine the rent and the award of affordable units. The proposed law changes have been modified by the city over time in response to criticism from the people of the communities where it will be implemented; however, it still has opposition from some citizens.

Councilmember Inez Barron said the plan is “Totally unrealistic … to say that only 50 percent of the so-called affordable housing is going to be earmarked for people and that 12 percent of that are for people making what 100 percent or 90 percent of my community makes … this is a model for gentrification that I’m not going to support.”

There are other concerns that any development that is shaped by legislative fiat may disrupt contextual zoning already in place. There is fear that the cumulative impact of different plans having similar but different goals will have unintended consequences on communities.

Bay Ridge and Dyker Heights fought for years to have the City Council adopt a special contextual zoning plan for the community. It is unsettling to think that a paragraph in a sweeping, 600-page proposal may have unwanted effects on the zoning protection we already have in place for our neighborhood. The plan has scant consideration for improvements to infrastructure and public space that will be needed if it successfully adds tens of thousands of new units of housing to our city.

There is a need for a balance between private enterprise and public benefit, and this planning process needs to be crystal clear and deliberate so that there are no unintended consequences from it. We know developers wait until changes in zoning are made and then accumulate air rights or take advantage of the law in ways that turn zoning and planning on its head.

No development plan should be approved unless necessary infrastructure improvements are also provided in the construction plan. The phenomenon of overnight and extraordinary change has overwhelmed neighborhoods throughout Brooklyn. The city should pursue affordable housing but channel its energy into assuring that new development strengthens neighborhoods and the city.

Mayor de Blasio must incorporate sunset clauses into the proposed ZQA and MIH legislation. Let the amendments expire in four years unless the City Council affirmatively votes to renew them. The people will know that if ZQA and MIH turn into nightmares, they will be addressed and allowed to fade into the sunset.