As the City Council’s voting deadline on the City of Yes for Housing Opportunity steadily approaches, residents, civic groups, and local elected officials throughout Queens have voiced their stance on the monumental rezoning proposal.
The City Council is expected to hold a final vote on Dec. 5 regarding the City of Yes, which was approved with modifications by two influential council committees on Nov. 21 following a hearing.
The changes included modifying the proposed elimination of parking mandates for new residential developments and adding restrictions on where accessory dwelling units can be built. Additionally, Mayor Adams’ administration announced a $5 billion commitment to fund the City Council’s housing plan, City for All, earlier this month.
The City for All Housing Plan’s points include mandating affordable housing in large transit-oriented and town-centered developments, allocating increased funding to the city’s housing programs, and increasing support for tenants’ rights.
The Fight Continues
In Southeast Queens, a steady coalition of residents and civic leaders have protested for months against the rezoning initiative, which aims to bring a little more housing in every neighborhood.
The organizing against the plan started earlier this year. In May, Alicia Spears, a Cambria Heights homeowner, held a packed town hall meeting at Cambria Heights Library. More than 500 Southeast Queens residents came together, voicing concerns that their single-family and two-family zoned neighborhoods would become unrecognizable in the near future if higher-density housing developments—as well as accessory dwelling units—are permitted.
Other vocal nay-sayers include Paul Graziano, a Flushing resident and urban planner who has long opposed the City of Yes for Housing initiative, and Reverend Carlene Thorbs, Chair of Community Board 12 and organizer of recent ‘Say No to City of Yes’ rallies held in South Jamaica. Two weeks ago, Graziano, Thorbs, and Spears hosted another rally in St. Albans, urging their elected officials to vote no this December.
The organizers led their most recent rally on Monday, Nov. 25, in front of Council Member Nantasha William’s office, located at 172-12 Linden Blvd. Much of Monday’s rally centered around homeowners reiterating concerns about the City of Yes.
Graziano and Warren Schreiber, president of the Queens Civic Congress, said that if the plan passes on Dec. 5, they would pursue legal action. ” We will be filing a lawsuit… it’s happening,” Graziano said.
Schreiber expanded more, sharing that they would file the lawsuit under Article 78, which allows citizens to appeal decisions made by government agencies or officials to the New York State Supreme Court. “The first step would be an injunction until the Article 78, the lawsuit, could be heard,” Schreiber said. Schreiber said that he wants to ask the court for an injunction as soon as possible. “We’re still working on its logistics and how it’s going to be funded,” Schreiber said.
Many of the protestors at Monday’s rally came from neighborhoods across Queens, including Forest Hills, Far Rockaway, and Rego Park.
Esther Gimelfarb, a Rego Park resident, said she’s been organizing rallies against the plan in her neighborhood with the help of Community Board 6 members.
Gimelfarb is skeptical as to how the City of Yes would bring more affordable housing. She feels that there is no guarantee that the plan would provide affordable housing in a reasonable time frame. She notes that new residential buildings already going up in her neighborhood—most being offered at market rate.
“All it is is a wet dream for big real estate developers to come in and displace us,” Gimelfarb said.
Claudia Valentino, president of Forest Hills Community and Civic Association, told QNS that the revisions to the plan that were approved by the City Council’s Land Use Committee—as well as Zoning subcommittee—on Nov 21 were not enough.
Valentino shared that she was familiar with zoning, as she aided in zoning parts of Forest Hills when she was on her community board’s land use committee over twenty years ago. “My bottom line is that this absolutely hurts the quality of life and neighborhood character and harms our infrastructure. We can’t be digging up driveways and periling foundations just to put residents in a garage and build an extra Accessory Dwelling Unit in the backyard,” she said.
Local Electeds Weigh In
Residents and civic groups are not the only ones against the City of Yes for Housing. A handful of elected officials, including Council Members Joann Ariola (District-32), Robert Holden(District-30), and Vickie Paladino(District-19), have long opposed the zoning plan and announced that they would vote no next month.
Paladino released a statement on Tuesday, Nov 26, confirming that she will vote no when the City of Yes for Housing Opportunity is brought to the City Council for a full vote.
Paladino said that despite the City Council’s two committees voting to approve a modified version of the City of Yes, “the City of Yes zoning package is still too large and too ambiguous to be applied across New York City without disastrous impacts,” she wrote.
Paladino criticized the plan in her statement, adding that the modified plan is still “deeply problematic.” She cited examples of omitting community boards and local leaders’ points of view and not addressing longstanding infrastructure issues.
Holden and Ariola voiced similar concerns.
Ariola urged her fellow Council Members to stop the “ticking time bomb” and “listen to their constituents, and derail this legislation in December when it comes for a vote,” she said in a statement. “If not, the New York City that we all know and love will cease to exist and be replaced with something far, far worse and overcrowded in the not-so-distant future.”
Similarly to Paladino, Ariola noted that most community boards in Queens—12 out of the 14—rejected the City of Yes (prior to the recent modifications). She added that an influx of thousands of additional residents would hurt sections of the city that lack vital resources.
“Cramming thousands upon thousands of additional residents into sections of the city that lack the vital medical, transportation, education, and public safety infrastructure to sustain them will only make things even more difficult for New Yorkers in the years to come and will dramatically impact the quality of life that our citizens have come to expect when living in the Greatest City in the World,” she said in a statement released on Nov. 22 in the wake of the modifications.
After news of the land use and zoning committees’ vote of approval, Holden still came out in opposition to the plan and said New Yorkers have been straightforward in rejecting the City of Yes. “New Yorkers are clear: they do not support the City of Yes and reject the idea of giving real estate developers a blank check to overdevelop our city,” he wrote.
“No matter what this deal offers, it remains a terrible plan that should have been opposed at all costs. Our neighborhoods deserve thoughtful planning that prioritizes infrastructure, affordability, and community input—not a plan that ignores the will of the people.”
Council Member Lynn Schulman(District-29) is also opposed. Schulman, a member of the zoning subcommittee, voted against the plan on Nov 21.
Other elected officials have taken a neutral approach to the December vote. Despite mounting pressure from local residents’ protests, Council Member Nantasha Williams says she hasn’t decided how she will vote.
“With substantial policy changes made and $5 billion of capital improvements in the discussion, I remain optimistic and undecided until I know the details of how those funds will improve the lives of my constituents,” Williams told QNS via email.
Meanwhile, Council Member Selvena Brooks-Powers District (District-31) sits on the land use committee and was the only council member to abstain from voting during the Nov 21 hearing.
QNS spoke to a representative from Speaker Adrienne Adams’ office regarding her vote next month. Although her spokesperson did not divulge how Speaker Adams would vote, Adam’s representative believes Mayor Adams’ $5 billion funding commitment for the Speaker’s City for All plan was a “win.”
Speaker Adams said in a Nov 25 press release that the committees’ approval of the council’s modifications of City of Yes and the major investment in City For All demonstrates “that it is possible to create a significant amount of new housing in every neighborhood while respecting neighborhood character and investing in more affordable housing, communities, and homeownership.”
Adams added that approval is an important step forward in addressing the city’s housing crisis, which is making housing unaffordable for working and middle-class New Yorkers.
“Residents of our city need affordable and stable homes to rent and own, and addressing that shortage while supporting existing homeowners and tenants, deepening affordability, and strengthening the infrastructure of neighborhoods are goals we must all share for a safer and stronger city,” she wrote.
As for supporters, Council Member Francisco Moya (District-21) voted to approve the City of Yes For Housing plan on Nov. 21. Moya sits on both the land use and zoning committees and voted in approval on both committees.
