Mayor Adams floats ‘red tape cutting’ NYC zoning proposals ahead of housing plan release

Mayor Adams proposed a slate of amendments to local zoning laws Wednesday that would in his telling slash reams of bureaucratic red tape standing in the way of housing development, economic growth and green infrastructure.

The three proposed amendments, which need approval from the City Council to take effect, were laid out by Adams during a breakfast meeting held in downtown Manhattan by the Association for a Better New York, a business group.

“All of them are centered around the same idea: Embracing the creativity and innovation of 8.8 million New Yorkers, cutting red tape, minimizing bureaucracy, reimagining the way we do business, build housing and promote economic growth,” Adams told business leaders at the breakfast. “We’re tired of the artificial barriers and unnecessary regulations that have stifled expansion and innovation.”

The first amendment floated by Adams would focus on giving local businesses more flexibility by removing certain limitations on where retail, nightlife and life science companies can operate, according to a fact sheet released by City Hall.

The second amendment aims to expand the city’s housing stock by making it easier to convert empty commercial buildings into residences; scrap “unnecessary” parking requirements for certain residential buildings, and increase the permitted floor area ratio for all types of affordable housing developments, the fact sheet states. The final zoning text tweak would promulgate the usage of green energy in buildings by making it easier to install solar panels and electric vehicle charging stations.

The amendment blast, which Adams dubbed his “City of Yes” blueprint, comes ahead of the long-anticipated release of his housing plan.

Adams told the business leaders that his proposed amendments will be “a key component” of the “soon-to-be released” plan, but did not share more details.

On the flipside, the mayor acknowledged that the amendment process is complicated and time-consuming.

“We’re going to push as quickly as possible. Some of this stuff is going to take two or three years to get what we want to accomplish, but there’s an urgency in housing, there’s an urgency in employment, there’s an urgency on what we want to do,” he said.

A City Council spokesman would not comment on the merits of Adams’ proposals, but confirmed the Council would need to approve them.

Polling shows that housing remains one of the most pressing policy issues for New Yorkers, as rents are shooting up due to a variety of economic factors, including inflation, diminishing the availability of affordable units.

On the campaign trail last year, Adams made it a key component of his City Hall bid to pledge that he would boost the city’s annual capital budget for housing to $4 billion.

But the executive budget proposal he unveiled in April only set aside about $2.5 billion, drawing pushback from Council members and affordable housing advocates who accused him of going back on his campaign promise.

Budget negotiations between the mayor’s team and the Council remain ongoing, and Adams recently suggested he is open to the idea of boosting the housing spending component to get closer to his campaign pledge.

Beyond budgetary issues, Adams told reporters after his breakfast speech that city agencies like the Department of Buildings and the Department of Housing Preservation and Development have a lot of work to do as it relates to housing and economic development.

“We need to get our own house in order,” he said. “My city agencies must be more pro-business and they must get out of the way with bureaucracy and red tape.”