BY BEN VERDE
With 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 selfdescribed
“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.
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
COURIER L 10 IFE, JULY 16-22, 2021
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.
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
Unform Land Use Review Procedure
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-rich-areas
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 prodevelopment,
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 drivethrough
Eric Adams outside his campaign offi ce. Photo by Caroline Ourso
McDonald’s on an undeveloped
corridor in hypergentrifi
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 who
rejected a proposal for a eightstory
apartment building on
Front Street in favor of a less
dense alternative. The developer
eventually pulled its proposal
and the site remains a
parking lot for trucks.
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.
Eric Adams, and the
future of development
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