Acknowledging anti-development sentiments currently simmering at an "all-time high," New York's planning director Marisa Lago defended de Blasio administration policies like mandatory inclusionary housing.

"We're seeing, at least for me, since the '70s, an all-time high in anti-development sentiment," said Marisa Lago, director of New York City's Department of City Planning and head of its City Planning Commission, quoted by Daniel Geiger speaking at a recent event. "A portion of it is the fact that we have had sustained growth for such a long period. Despite the Great Recession, the city has seen steady prosperity," Lago went on.
While that prosperity has spurred the construction of plentiful new housing since 2008, much of it is unaffordable to lower- and middle-income households. But Geiger reports that Lago "took issue with the notion that gleaming new apartment projects amount to gentrification."
Lago defended policies like Mayor de Blasio's mandatory inclusionary housing initiative, passed to combat the gentrification specter. "In recent years the Department of City Planning has pushed through several neighborhood rezonings, which have granted residential projects greater density in return for including permanently affordable units," Geiger writes.
Those upzonings have also come under fire for allegedly targeting lower-income neighborhoods, to which Lago responded that since 2015, 36 percent of new housing was built in the 25 percent of neighborhoods with the highest median incomes.
FULL STORY: City planning czar: Despite mayor's policies, anti-development sentiment at ‘all-time high'

Planetizen Federal Action Tracker
A weekly monitor of how Trump’s orders and actions are impacting planners and planning in America.

Map: Where Senate Republicans Want to Sell Your Public Lands
For public land advocates, the Senate Republicans’ proposal to sell millions of acres of public land in the West is “the biggest fight of their careers.”

Restaurant Patios Were a Pandemic Win — Why Were They so Hard to Keep?
Social distancing requirements and changes in travel patterns prompted cities to pilot new uses for street and sidewalk space. Then it got complicated.

Albuquerque Route 66 Motels Become Affordable Housing
A $4 million city fund is incentivizing developers to breathe new life into derelict midcentury motels.

DC Area County Eliminates Bus Fares
Montgomery County joins a growing trend of making transit free.

Platform Pilsner: Vancouver Transit Agency Releases... a Beer?
TransLink will receive a portion of every sale of the four-pack.
Urban Design for Planners 1: Software Tools
This six-course series explores essential urban design concepts using open source software and equips planners with the tools they need to participate fully in the urban design process.
Planning for Universal Design
Learn the tools for implementing Universal Design in planning regulations.
Heyer Gruel & Associates PA
JM Goldson LLC
Custer County Colorado
City of Camden Redevelopment Agency
City of Astoria
Transportation Research & Education Center (TREC) at Portland State University
Camden Redevelopment Agency
City of Claremont
Municipality of Princeton (NJ)