City Council Weighs Affordable Housing Plan

Mayor Bill de Blasio's controversial proposals to rewrite zoning regulations to increase affordable housing are moving forward. Now that the City Planning Commission has signed off, the City Council has kicked off its own hearings.

The plans are called Mandatory Inclusionary Housing and Zoning for Quality and Affordability, and the council scheduled two marathon hearings to examine them. 

Mandatory Inclusionary Housing, the subject of Tuesday's hearing, would require developers to build more affordable housing in rezoned areas. Zoning for Quality and Affordability, with a hearing scheduled for Wednesday, would update the zoning code to allow taller buildings in some places and make it easier to build senior housing, among other things. 

Administration representatives called the plans a "game changer" for housing in the city, an essential tool to preserve affordable units in a runaway real estate market, and the most ambitious effort of its kind in the country.

But Deputy Mayor Alicia Glen was only a few seconds into her testimony before protesters interrupted the hearing, chanting "de Blasio's plan is not affordable for me."

Under the mandatory housing plan, the city would require 25 percent of the units in new developments to be affordable for residents with incomes averaging 60 percent of Area Median Income ($46,620 a year for a family of three) or 30 percent of units for residents with incomes averaging 80 percent of Area Median Income ($62,000 for a family of three).

The packed hearing room was split between advocates and opponents, with nearly 200 people signed up to testify. Laborers — who are calling for increased safety measures and are opposed to the plan — held up photographs of workers being carried away from construction sites in body bags. A new coalition of union members, advocates for seniors and small businesses rallied in favor of the plan on City Hall's Steps, with workers saying the proposals offer hope that they can keep living in their neighborhoods. 

Council members, who grilled administration officials for four hours before moving on to public testimony, said they support the goals of the mayor's plans, but want to see affordable units set aside for lower-income residents and increased protections for construction workers who will be building the new housing.