‘Proposal doesn’t make sense for Staten Island,’ officials say; here’s why

EDITOR’S NOTE: Tipping Point? is a journalistic initiative of Advance/SILive.com to inform Staten Islanders about how NYC’s City of Yes for housing opportunities proposal could have implications for the city. The plan, which the city council will vote on this year, calls for significant zoning changes to encourage the development of new homes and apartments amid a housing shortage across the city.

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — As New York City leaders consider a controversial zoning reform proposal that would bring sweeping changes to housing development across the city, some say Staten Island deserves its own plan tailored to the unique wants and needs of the borough and its residents.

The city’s Yes for Housing Opportunity proposal, which would require sweeping zoning changes across the city to encourage the construction of new homes and apartments, has been met with overwhelming opposition from Staten Island residents since it was introduced.

In low-density zones, which make up the vast majority of Staten Island, the proposed reforms would allow accessory dwelling units (ADUs) to be built on single-family homes, two-family homes, and small apartment buildings in areas where they are currently not allowed. At the same time, off-street parking requirements for new residential construction would be eliminated.

District President Vito Fossella has been one of the most outspoken critics of the proposal, claiming that the majority of residents he has spoken to do not support the potential changes and would rather preserve the character of their neighborhood.

“As it stands, the proposal doesn’t make sense for Staten Island. Our communities and neighborhoods, quite frankly, are different from many parts of New York City. And we’d rather preserve the existing character. The proposal might make sense in other parts of the city, but it doesn’t make sense here, if we want to preserve much of what we have,” Fossella said.

The mayor is not the only one with concerns. Members of the three ward councils all voted against the proposal and have drawn up a long list of ways these changes could negatively impact Staten Islanders.

Some fear that their property values ​​will be depressed by new development. Others argue that the fight for parking spaces will worsen with the elimination of off-street parking requirements. Many argue that the city’s infrastructure simply cannot handle the influx of new housing and residents without significant investment from the city. And some simply don’t want multi-story rental apartments in their quiet neighborhoods that consist mainly of owner-occupied, single-family homes.

In a recent interview, Fossella told the Advance/SILive.com that he still believes the plan is not right for Staten Island. He floated the idea of ​​creating a borough-by-borough plan in consultation with those who would directly impact it.

“What we’ve said from day one with this whole concept is that one size doesn’t fit all, and that’s why we’ve asked for flexibility for the uniqueness of Staten Island,” Fossella said. “It’s almost to the point where we can just make our own plan with a group discussion of what we think might work.”

“We hope that people of sense will say, ‘Okay, that’s their community. They know what’s best. We will respect any elected official who opposes this, who represents 500,000 people. We will obey them.’ Which I think would be a reasonable and respectful thing to do,” he added.

Ben D’Amato, chair of the Land Use Department for Community Board 2, has also voiced support for a borough-specific plan, or at least one that is written by people who know the borough. He argues that the Department of Urban Development officials he has spoken with do not live on Staten Island or do not have the necessary borough knowledge to make changes that benefit residents.

“These guys who do the work for City Planning don’t live on Staten Island. They live in Manhattan. They live in apartments. They bike to work,” D’Amato said. “Instead of telling us what they’re going to do, they should come to the borough, meet with the borough president, meet with the Staten Island council members and the City Planning guys on Staten Island, not the guys in Manhattan, and come up with a plan. Instead of telling us what you’re going to do to us, ask us what we need?”

Department of City Development officials have repeatedly said that each borough has a role to play in addressing the citywide housing shortage and that the potential zoning reforms would result in only minimal changes to neighborhood character.

Data from City Planning shows that Staten Island’s housing development lags significantly behind the rest of New York City. In the past decade, from 2013 to 2023, only 7,119 new homes were built in the borough.

That amounts to approximately 150.11 new homes per 10,000 residents. That is well below the citywide average of 281.34 new homes per 10,000 residents over the same 10-year period.

Officials also noted that in addition to the citywide proposal currently under consideration, the department often studies and implements neighborhood-specific changes initiated by local elected officials and residents. One example is the South Richmond Zoning Relief plan, which was adopted last year and made it easier for homeowners and property owners of less than an acre in South Shore to have work done on their property through a simplified approval process.

“The principle that every neighborhood and every part of the city must be a part of our housing growth is integral to this effort. That’s why we’ve carefully crafted a proposal that allows for slightly more housing in every neighborhood, while respecting the existing context in the city. A neighborhood planning process plays an important role in the growth of our city, but even as we pursue neighborhood planning, we can’t change the course of uneven housing development without citywide changes,” said Dan Garodnick, Director of the Department of Urban Development.

Support for the plan

While many Staten Islanders oppose the City of Yes’s housing proposal, the plan has its supporters.

Marcel Negret, senior planner for the Regional Plan Association, a nonprofit community organization focused on improving the quality of life in the New York metropolitan area, refuted the oft-repeated notion that the City of Yes takes a one-size-fits-all approach, pointing to the extensive work that went into crafting each proposed change, taking into account the distinct characteristics of each neighborhood.

For example, the Town Center Zoning and Transit-Oriented Development proposals, which would allow three- to five-story apartment buildings in certain locations in low-density neighborhoods, would limit the number of stories based on the scale of other, older apartment buildings in the area. That means that in some areas it would only allow three-story buildings, while in other areas it would allow four or five stories.

“I would really balk at the idea that City of Yes is cookie-cutter in any way. If there’s one thing, it’s the sheer volume of documents, the thousands of pages of studies, the environmental impact statement, and all the documents that City Planning has put out to explain what the provisions are, that show that this is a really thoughtful approach that is very much tailored to the specifics of each neighborhood in the city,” Negret said.

When asked about the idea of ​​giving Staten Island its own borough-by-borough plan based on the wishes of its residents, he noted that the city’s willingness to let each borough make its own zoning decisions was a major factor in the current housing crisis that the city now wants to address.

“The city has tried this approach of letting neighborhoods decide what to do before,” Negret said. “We’ve tried that and we’ve seen the negative consequences of that, so we need to rethink those changes and implement something that is citywide in nature because the urgency of the need demands it.”

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