In May 2014, Mayor de Blasio released his plan ‘Housing New York,’ a five-borough ten-year plan to preserve and expand affordable housing. Key components of this plan include protecting current housing stock, preserving 120,000 units of existing housing, investing in strong neighborhoods by planning with communities, and creating 80,000 new affordable housing units. To achieve these goals, the Department of City Planning (DCP) proposed three initiatives: Zoning for Quality and Affordability (ZQA), Mandatory Inclusionary Housing and Neighborhood Studies.

The ZQA text amendment has four main goals: modernize rules that shape buildings, encourage better quality buildings, promote affordable senior housing, and reduce parking requirements for affordable housing.

 

ZQA is a wide reaching proposal that will affect all boroughs of New York City. In response, CIVITAS is retaining BFJ Planning, a consulting firm that focuses on planning, urban design, environmental analysis, real estate and transportation, to help evaluate the ZQA proposal and draft recommendations. This CIVITAS initiative is partially supported by our ZQA coalition members: East Sixties Neighborhood Association (ESNA) and East 86th Street Merchants/Residents Association.

 
After a detailed examination of the ZQA/MIH proposal and a review of the potential impacts on Community Districts 8 and 11, CIVITAS looks forward to working with the community, elected officials and City Planning to ensure the community’s concerns are heard.