If we really want to build a more affordable, sustainable New York and keep our economy growing, we need to build more housing in every single community for all New Yorkers.
We’re working hard to create more affordable housing and expand economic opportunity in all of New York’s diverse communities — and we know that those policies will look different from borough to borough and neighborhood to neighborhood. But in some parts of the city, an arbitrary, outdated, and Albany-imposed limitation on what types of homes we can build prevents us from accomplishing our goal of producing more housing.
In some of the most centrally-located, transit-accessible, and job- and amenity-rich locations in New York — precisely those areas where more housing makes most sense — an arcane state law known as the floor area ratio cap, or FAR, which limits the construction of apartment buildings to no more than 12 times the size of the lot they sit on. There is no health or safety rationale for the limit — and there are already more than 200 residential buildings in our city, with 32,000 apartments and tens of thousands of New Yorkers living in them today, that exceed the cap. They were built before the cap was put in place in 1961 — and when there were 3.4 million fewer people in this state, and more than a million fewer people in New York City.
Lifting the cap, which has been proposed as part of this year’s state budget, would not do anything on its own — any development proposal would still have to go through New York City’s vigorous environmental review process and our equally exacting public review process.
The status quo is one in which this arbitrary limit is silencing the voices and judgment of New York City’s communities, Community Boards, borough presidents, City Planning Commission, City Council, and mayor. The FAR cap actually limits the city’s ability to do the right thing and build more housing, especially more apartments that are affordable.
Removing the cap simply gives New York City the ability to build housing where we decide it’s needed — while leaving the cap in place lets some of the city’s most affluent areas off the hook for contributing solutions to address the housing crisis for a more inclusive New York City.
Building new homes in a fair manner is central to addressing the staggering human costs of New York’s housing shortage. Every home that we can approve and see built plays a role in our collective efforts to bring rents down, reduce gentrification pressures, protect tenants and address homelessness.
Returning control of New York City’s zoning to our city would allow us to create permanent affordable housing in neighborhoods where there is little prospect of it now. For example, in many areas of Manhattan, a developer can build 100% market rate housing because the affordability requirement of Mandatory Inclusionary Housing does not apply. If the FAR cap were lifted, the city could make the decision to rezone these areas to allow more housing — and thus require permanently affordable housing.
With the cap in place, some of our city’s highest-demand neighborhoods are seeing skyrocketing rents with little hope for new affordable housing that would create opportunities for New Yorkers, including for residents to remain in their neighborhoods.
Maintaining this arbitrary cap flies in the face of all of our city’s fair housing goals. The resources and opportunities that are concentrated in neighborhoods, where the FAR cap is limiting new housing, should be available to all New Yorkers. We can no longer allow certain areas of our city to pull up the drawbridge against a crucial citywide housing push to create a fairer, more prosperous city.
An “everyone pitches in” approach is at the heart of both Mayor Adams’ City of Yes and Council Speaker Adrienne Adams’ Housing Agenda. The FAR cap is an obstacle in the way of making that a reality.
Fortunately, the governor and both sides of City Hall are working together and united on the need for more housing available to all New Yorkers in every neighborhood.
As the state budget moves forward, policymakers in Albany should ask themselves: is there any use in maintaining an outdated restriction on New York City that undermines housing affordability, our climate goals, and racial and economic justice?
The answer is clear: we need to eliminate the FAR cap and enable New York City to develop more affordable and mixed-income housing in New York City’s most central areas — just like everywhere else.
Adams is the Council speaker and represents Southeast Queens. Garodnick is the chair of the City Planning Commission and director of the Department of City Planning.
