East Village Rezoning Falls Short on Affordable Housing

According to a report by the Cooper Square Committee, Caroline Spivack writes, voluntary inclusionary housing incentives packaged with a 2008 rezone of parts of Manhattan's East Village and Lower East Side "fell short of the city's projections, creating only 55 percent of the below-market-rate apartments estimated."

The report states that while "there is no question that the rezoning has been successful in preventing out of scale development in the 114 block area, but it has been less successful in promoting affordable housing development." Due to "insufficient incentive" for developers, only 190 construction permits for affordable units were filed in the area in the decade since the rezoning.

Meanwhile, despite the 2016 approval of mandatory inclusionary housing policies to accompany rezonings, many East Village residents still "revile the thought of a neighborhood upzoning."