Parking mandates by the numbers
We’ve talked a lot during the lengthy public review process about why lifting parking mandates in City of Yes is crucial to building more affordable housing and a more livable city. With a just a few weeks left before City Council votes on a final version of this historic text amendment, we want to talk specifics.
If the City Council weakens the proposal to lift parking mandates, or does away with it entirely, we could lose tens of thousands of units of new housing (especially affordable housing), thousands of jobs, and region-wide economic benefits. This (popular!) plan is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to build a city for the future and City Council must include lifting parking mandates citywide with no exceptions. Here’s why.
New housing
As proposed, City of Yes is expected to create up to 108,000 new units over 15 years. In the grand scheme of our housing crisis, that’s not even that many units! So we need them all. But research from the Regional Plan Association has shown that without lifting parking mandates, this number could be reduced by as much as 50%.
New ADUs could account for approximately 39,000 of that new housing under City of Yes. But parking mandates will make it nearly impossible to build ADUs, totally sabotaging that aspect of the text amendment.
City of Yes encourages “transit-oriented development” and “town center zoning” in less dense neighborhoods, and that’s expected to create between 17,000 and 38,000 multifamily homes. But if the Council keeps parking mandates in these areas, much of that type of development (three-to-five story buildings above retail) would be impossible to build.
Keeping parking mandates would be especially damaging to affordable housing production. The Regional Plan Association found that lifting New York’s parking mandates in the Transit Zone led to a 36% increase in affordable housing production. Now we have the opportunity to do the same outside of the Transit Zone; otherwise, we risk losing that 36% increase. That amounts to thousands fewer affordable units.
These numbers are just a few stark examples of how parking mandates will undermine the benefits of City of Yes if we don’t remove them. The New York City region is short approximately 540,000 units; a shortage that could increase to 920,000 units by 2035. Every new unit of housing is essential. We cannot afford to lose tens of thousands of units by keeping parking mandates in place.
New jobs
An analysis by Regional Plan Association shows that, if fully adopted, City of Yes could unlock the creation of:
as many as 442,000 jobs
$32 billion in earnings
$83 billion in Gross Domestic Product (GDP) across the region
Union 32BJ, for example, has been a consistent supporter of City of Yes because, aside from the housing benefits, it will create good union jobs. Keeping parking mandates would reduce the amount of housing we can build, meaning fewer jobs, less earnings and lower GDP.
The popular plan
Reminder: lifting parking mandates is popular! Recent polling showed that 74% of New Yorkers support lifting parking mandates, in districts all across the city.
Public testimony at the Subcommittee hearing confirmed this, which is clear when you peruse testimony from a local public hearing.
Lifting parking mandates is not a ancillary to building more housing with City of Yes, it’s a central part of this essential reform to our zoning code. Want to make sure your local decision makers understand the importance of lifting parking mandates? Use our templates to call or email them today! Your action matters; help make New York City a more livable place today and tomorrow!