UPPER EAST SIDE, NY — After much neighborhood anticipation, the Department of City Planning has named the Upper East Side as one of 12 community districts that will fast-track affordable housing development proposals in the neighborhood.
The districts produced the lowest rates of new affordable housing relative to their existing housing stock over the past five years, Sideya Sherman, city planning director and commission chair, told reporters.
"This is a way for us as a city to make sure we're focused on speeding up affordable housing in the communities where we see production lagging," Sherman said.
The Affordable Housing Fast Track was a ballot measure that was approved with more than 58 percent of the vote back in November.
Beginning in January, it will shorten the public review process for qualifying proposals by several months and give the City Planning Commission final approval authority instead of the City Council.
To pick the districts, the Department of City Planning compared the number of new affordable housing units produced between July 1, 2021, and June 30, 2026, with each district's total housing stock at the start of that period.
Manhattan's Community District 8, which includes the Upper East Side and Roosevelt Island, recorded 150 new affordable housing units during those five years, according to the department. That amounts to about 0.11 percent of the district's starting housing stock of 139,461 units.
The new fast-track process, which will take effect on Jan. 1, will shorten the public review process from around seven months down to 90 days, or 105 days in cases requiring more extensive environmental review.
The new public approval process would still give community boards and the borough president 60 days to review the plan and hold hearings.
Under the new fast-track rules, the City Planning Commission will have the final say on qualifying land-use applications, including those for developments that combine market-rate apartments with required permanently affordable housing.
The City Planning Commission is a 13-person board, seven of whom are appointed by the mayor, and the rest are appointed by borough presidents and the public advocate.
City Council will no longer have the final say over these development applications.
Sherman said she sees this plan as a way to reduce racial segregation in New York City. Some districts with the lowest rates of new affordable housing had whiter populations, while some that produced the most affordable housing were predominantly Black and Latino, she said.
"If we want to be a city that helps undo the patterns of segregation, that makes sure that New Yorkers have choice about where they live, we can't concentrate affordable housing in just a handful of neighborhoods," Sherman said.
However, the need for affordable housing also extends to people already living in the selected districts, she said.
"People who live in fast-track neighborhoods are also impacted by lack of affordable housing," Sherman said. "This impacts people's ability to grow their families within their own community, or for, you know, your children or your grandchildren to stay in the neighborhood."
Some critics, however, question whether the selection formula adequately accounts for each district's capacity to accommodate new housing.
"The method that they used does not consider any planning criteria like holding capacity, access to transportation, and jobs, historic districts," George Janes, an urban planner and zoning consultant, said at a recent Upper East Side Community Board meeting. "It just considers what's happened in the recent past and how big your community district currently is."
City Council Speaker Julie Menin said the Upper East Side has the highest residential density in the city, and so it presents different challenges than less densely developed neighborhoods.
"As these 12 community districts become eligible for expedited development, it is critical that we are also planning comprehensively for the growth that may follow," Menin said. "That means working with communities to identify where new housing makes sense and ensuring that growth is accompanied by the transit, infrastructure, public space and other investments neighborhoods need."
City Councilmember Virginia Maloney, who represents part of the Upper East Side, also raised concerns about the district's density.
"New York can't solve its housing shortage challenge alone. We're going to need every community to contribute, but I think the concern I have is that CB 8 is already a very dense district," Maloney told Patch. "I think that the equation needs to take that into consideration."
For questions, email Miranda.Levingston@Patch.com.
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