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What might development look like with Eric Adams as mayor?
BRONX TIMES REPORTER, J BTR BRONX TIMES REPORTER, JUULYLY 1 69--2125, 2021 15
BY BEN VERDE
With Brooklyn Borough
President Eric Adams almost
certainly becoming New
York’s next mayor in January,
real estate developers and
community advocates alike
are rushing to understand the
future of land use policies under
the city’s self-described
“complex” next chief executive.
While Gotham deals with a
severe housing shortage, and
ranks as the most expensive
city in America, Adams will
assume broad powers over the
development industry — including
the power to sign off,
or veto, every rezoning request
across the Five Boroughs.
When developers purchase
land, and wish to build higher
than current zoning laws allow,
they will seek a rezoning
through the lengthy Uniform
Land Use Review Procedure,
which requires a certain percentage
of housing units be
designated as “affordable” —
and needs approval by the City
Council, the City Planning
Commission, and City Hall.
Current Mayor Bill de
Blasio had planned to build
around 300,000 affordable
units by 2026, which would require
signifi cant amounts of
upzoning, and would be aided
by the neighborhood-wide rezoning
of Gowanus, which
alone would bring some 3,000
below-market-rate units.
Adams, on his campaign
website, vowed to upzone
“wealthier areas where we
can build far more affordable
units,” which comes in contrast
to the trend of only allowing
land use changes in poor,
predominantly non-white
neighborhoods like East New
York and Inwood. As a candidate,
Adams found most of his
votes in the outer boroughs,
and less affl uent neighborhoods,
possibly giving him license
to ignore the protests
of residents in ritzier areas
like SoHo, which is currently
under consideration to be rezoned,
despite fi erce opposition
from locals.
The almost-certainly-nextmayor
also pledged to convert
offi ce buildings to apartments,
and legalize basement apartments
and single room occupancy
units.
It’s complicated.
Adams has a friendly relationship
with the real estate
industry. The beep did not eschew
donations from them
during his mayoral run, even
as many other candidates
did, and is reported to have
courted them aggressively.
As Brooklyn’s borough
president since 2014, Adams
has offered advisory rulings
on land use changes in Brooklyn
as parts of the borough
rapidly gentrifi ed and a number
of large developments went
through the ULURP process —
offering observers a glimpse
into his possible feelings on
zoning changes.
An examination of some
of his past rulings, though,
would seem to run contrary to
his pro-development-in-richareas
mantra, according to
some advocates for more housing.
“I think rhetorically, he is
pro-development,” said Will
Thomas of the developmentboosting
group Open New
York. “But in the same way
that Bloomberg was seen as
pro-development, and Bloomberg
down-zoned a large portion
of the city.”
Borough Hall has backed
the down-scaling of residential
buildings in a number of
recent projects to come before
them, most recently with the
840 Atlantic Avenue rezoning.
In that project, Adams
sided with Community Board
8 against developer Simon
Duschinsky by demanding a
less dense residential building
than the one currently pitched
by the developer, which would
see an 18-story tower replace
a drive-through McDonald’s
on an undeveloped corridor
in hyper-gentrifi ed Prospect
Heights. The less dense version
of the development favored
by the beep and the community
board will ultimately
contain fewer units of affordable
housing than currently
proposed.
His offi ce similarly sided
with residents in the wealthy
enclave of Vinegar Hill whorejected
a proposal for a eightstory
apartment building on
Front Street in favor of a less
dense alternative. While the
original zoning requested by
the developer would have allowed
for fi ve to seven units
of income-targeted housing,
the version preferred by the
borough president and Community
Board 2 contained
none. The developer eventually
pulled its proposal and the
site remains a parking lot for
trucks.
These examples share a
common theme of Adams siding
with members of community
boards, whose members
are appointed by Borough
Hall. While community
boards, like the borough president,
offer only advisory opinions,
their elected offi cials
more often than not follow
their leads.
“Community boards have
the fi rst say in the ULURP
process, even though it’s informal
and non-binding,” said
Thomas. “There’s a lot of status
quo bias and I think that
fi lters into City Council and
borough president decisions.”
Power in his people
Preservationist groups concede
that Adams is undoubtedly
a pro-real estate fi gure,
but say that his record of siding
with community boards in
down-scaling is largely a product
of the Borough Hall land
use staff, who attend public
meetings and coordinate with
community board members.
“His Brooklyn borough
staff are smart and knowledgeable,
which is too rare
in elected offi cial offi ces, and
were many times responsive
and have crafted nuanced
ULURP recommendations
that have refl ected local
voices, even if they did not control
overall policy,” said Linda
Trujilla of the preservationist
group Respect Brooklyn.
Trujilla said the group is
hopeful that if some of his
land-use staff follow him to
City Hall, they will bring an
emphasis on community-oriented
planning for development.
“If some of the Adams team
continue on, they will be helpful
in the push for public investment
in housing, community
land trust models, needed
landmarking and preserving
green space and creating more
gardens and parks as long as
the various progressive political
movements and unions
stay cohesive and unifi ed and
work across substantial issues
and not woke gestures,” she
said.
All told, Adams’ stance on
development is somewhat of
an enigma.
While his advisory opinions
as borough president may
have been guided by political
calculations, it remains an
open question whether his decisions
as the city’s top executive
will be guided by similar
concerns.
But now, in post-pandemic
New York, rents are once again
rising, and visions of a lowercost
metropolis, propelled by a
residential exodus, appears to
be a lost hope for renters, leaving
land use changes as the
only hope of many for cheaper
living costs.
Building enough apartment
units to make a signifi -
cant dent in prices would ruffl
e many feathers, but Adams
has pledged to do so, and his
electoral constituency may
give him the leeway to do exactly
that. But all anyone can
do now is wait, while the candidate
prepares to leave his
mark as the 110th mayor of
New York City.
Eric Adams with Gale Brewer and Reuben Diaz in 2014. REUTERS/Stephanie Keith
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