Adams Opened Door for 130K New Apartments. Will Mamdani Deliver Them?

by Greg David

This article was originally published on December 5 at 5 a.m. EST by THE CITY

Exactly one year after the passage of its hard-fought City of Yes revamp of the city’s land use rules, the Adams administration is taking a victory lap, trumpeting the 130,000 housing units that could potentially be built because of those changes and five major neighborhood rezonings it enacted in its four years in office.

But whether all that new housing gets built will depend on Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani and whether — and how — he fulfils the pledge he made last week to build on the City of Yes, not “discard it.”

“City of Yes and the neighborhood rezonings are big accomplishments,” said Howard Slatkin, formerly a top official at the Department of City Planning who now runs the nonprofit Citizens Housing and Planning Council. “But that doesn’t mean it’s ‘mission accomplished.’”

The housing component of City of Yes is expected to add 82,000 housing units through actions that included new state legislation allowing much higher density in residential districts, legalizing accessory dwelling units (ADUs), expanding the range of office buildings that can be converted to residential use, and reducing or eliminating parking requirements for new developments in some neighborhoods. It was the first major overhaul of the city’s zoning laws in 60 years.

The administration at first put neighborhood-level rezonings on the back burner while it pursued citywide efforts that included two other City of Yes rezonings, which simplify and modernize rules for commercial properties and energy efficiency efforts.

But eventually the administration initiated five successful rezonings: in the eastern Bronx around proposed new Metro-North stations, on Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn, Manhattan’s Midtown South, and Long Island City and Jamaica in Queens. Those changes could produce another 48,000 units.

The 130,000 total means that in four years the Adams administration authorized more housing units than had been allowed in rezonings over 20 years under mayors Michael Bloomberg and Bill de Blasio, according to an estimate from the Department of City Planning.

“We took a big swing at an issue that has challenged the city for decades and recognized that this housing crisis has been going on for so long that people we starting to take it for granted,” said Dan Garodnick, who spearheaded the changes as head of both the department and the City Planning Commission, which ultimately votes on land use changes. “We put thoughtful and comprehensive plans that were citywide on a scale that has never been done.”

Not included in the Adams administration’s figures are additional housing that could be built as a result of the way changes to the City Charter approved by the voters in November will make it easier to proceed on projects.

The reforms, crafted by an Adams-appointed commission, will ease the approval process for affordable housing developments, modest increases in allowed density, and for affordable housing in 12 neighborhoods that have produced the least affordable housing over the past five years. The reforms also weaken the Council’s land use power by allowing a panel composed of the mayor, Council speaker, and borough president to allow developments the Council has rejected.

Whether the charter changes make a difference depends on whether developers take initiative to pursue rezonings on properties in the 12 neighborhoods and whether the Mamdani administration seeks rezonings within those areas as well, says Carl Weisbrod, a longtime city planning official who served on the commission. Also crucial will be whether borough presidents are pro-development going forward.

Like Weisbrod, the nonprofit Citizens Budget Commission believes realizing the potential of what the Adams administration enacted depends on more neighborhood rezonings, particularly in neighborhoods that had previously been downzoned in the Bloomberg administration, said its housing specialist Sean Campion.

The CBC also says the Mamdani administration will have to find ways to encourage developers to take advantage of the new fast-track land use approvals.

Garodnick says it will be crucial for the Mamdani administration to find ways to help homeowners with costs associated with ADUs and landlords with converting obsolete office buildings to housing.

“Comes Down to Math”

Two major roadblocks loom for turning the rezonings into more housing.

The first is legislation being considered in the City Council to establish a minimum wage of $40 an hour and other requirements for affordable housing built with city help.

“If the Council passes a raft of new bills that could add an estimated $1 billion to the cost of just sustaining the current level of affordable production, it would be a setback to the new administration’s ambitious affordable housing goals before they even have a chance to get started,” said Slatkin.

The second is the shortcoming of the 485-x  tax incentive, enacted in April 2024 to replace the 421-a program. While both provide steep reductions in property taxes to buildings that include affordable housing, 485-x imposed new wage requirements for construction workers on big projects that have discouraged building.

It requires that buildings with more than 100 units pay at least $40 an hour in wages and benefits, a requirement that can rise to $70 an hour for buildings with more than 150 units.

Since the law’s passage, not a single developer has filed plans for a building with more than 100 units, according to data released in November by the Real Estate Board of New York. In the third quarter, 21 proposed projects had exactly 99 units so the wage rule would not apply.

“Housing often comes down to math, and the data is clear that it doesn’t make economic sense to build significant amounts of multi-family rental housing under 485-x and that’s the kind of housing the city needs most,” said James Whelan, REBNY president. 

However, insiders say that given 2026 is an election year, it will be up to Governor Kathy Hochul to lead an effort to revise the incentive.

Mamdani has not publicly taken a position on the Council bills or 485-x. His transition press office did not respond to a question for comment.

“We have set out a framework that enables the creation of a little more housing in every neighborhood,” Garodnick told THE CITY Thursday, using the tagline that served as the central argument for the City of Yes plan. 

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