New York City Council Wants Community Engagement to Lead Affordable Housing Development

The New York City Council released the new “Planning and Land Use Guidelines & Application Toolkit on December 15. The toolkit is intended to produce more community benefits from the land use application process and develop more affordable units.

“The Planning and Land Use Toolkit lists several items the council believes should be considered in each land use decision, such as: expanding engagement with communities, getting the most affordable housing out of each project, offering well-paying jobs to area residents and bettering open space and the streetscape,” according to an article by Ethan Stark-Miller for Brownstoner.

According to a statement by Council Speaker Adrienne Adams that precedes the toolkit, the New York  City Council “is seeking to elevate the role of planning in the land use process.”

The announcement followed just a week after Mayor Eric Adams announced a “Get Stuff Built” plan for housing in the city.

“While the council and the administration are vying to tackle the same issue, in releasing his plan, the mayor put far more emphasis on cutting down on the city’s bureaucracy to maximize overall housing construction – with a goal of building 500,000 new units over the next decade,” explains Stark Miller.

By comparison, the Planning and Land Use Toolkit “focuses on ramping up the amount of community engagement, which could ultimately lengthen the time it takes projects to move through [the Uniform Land Use Review Procedure].”