Council Reaches Agreement On Mayor’s Zoning Plan — Here’s What It Means For Fort Greene And Clinton Hill

BY HEATHER J. CHIN AND ALEX ELLEFSON

The City Council and Mayor Bill de Blasio have reached an agreement on two zoning changes meant to spur construction of affordable housing in the New York City.

The proposals, Zoning for Quality and Affordability (ZQA) and Mandatory Inclusionary Housing (MIH), passed the council’s Land Use Committee and Subcommittee on Zoning Thursday and are now on track to come up for a full council vote. However, councilmembers proposed key changes to the mayor’s plan in order to address concerns from their constituents when they were introduced last year.

Changes include:

• removing the parking space requirement for new developments in Brooklyn — including portions of Fort Greene and Clinton Hill — in order to leave more room for mixed-income and senior housing,
• increasing the minimum size of apartments for senior housing from 275- to 325 square feet,
• height requirements can now be five feet taller on the ground floor in the outer boroughs, including Brooklyn,

Regarding affordable housing, here are all the options in the new MIH plan:

The council also pushed for changes to the affordability requirements in MIH so that housing would be available for lower-income tenants. They added an option that would require developers to set aside 20 percent of housing for those making 40 precent of area median income (AMI), which comes to about $31,000 city-wide for a family of three. They also reduced the top income level, from 120 precent of AMI to 115 percent. MIH would have to go through a ULURP process that would allow the councilmember and community to give input before the proposal is introduced in an area.

The proposals come before the entire council later this week.