The planned rezoning of Midtown South would mark at least two firsts for New York City.
One, it would be the first time that the city has mapped new residential districts that allow housing projects to be 15 or 18 times larger than their lot sizes. Secondly, the rezoning would be the first time that Mandatory Inclusionary Housing has been implemented in Midtown Manhattan.
City Planning on Tuesday certified an application to rezone 42 blocks in the neighborhood, kickstarting the city’s months-long land use review process.
The rezoning is projected to bring nearly 9,700 new homes to the area, including between 1,940 and 2,890 permanently affordable units. Of those homes, an estimated 781 are expected to result from the conversion of office space into residential units.
The rezoning, which takes advantage of changes in the City of Yes for Housing Opportunity that make those conversions easier, will affect four, non-contiguous areas of Midtown South bounded by 40th Street to the north, Fifth Avenue to the east, 23rd Street to the south, and Eighth Avenue to the west. The areas are zoned for manufacturing use, and either bar housing construction or limit it considerably.
The proposal will map two new residential districts, R-11 and R-12, which will allow residential space with floor area ratios of 15 and 18, respectively. Those changes were made possible by the state lifting a cap that restricted the city’s residential FAR to 12. The City of Yes for Housing Opportunity created the two new district designations.
The state also plans to use one of these new districts at a site near the Javits Convention Center, though that will be through a separate process known as a general project plan, rather than a city-led rezoning.
The rezoning is part of Mayor Eric Adams’ proposal to add 100,000 units to Manhattan over the next decade, referred to as the Manhattan Plan. The plan includes previously announced initiatives, but will likely include other upzonings in the borough.
The MIH program faced criticism under Mayor Bill de Blasio’s administration for primarily targeting low-income areas, meaning that affordable housing was concentrated in these neighborhoods and needed significant subsidies to pencil out.
The rezoning of Midtown South would be the first to apply MIH in Midtown and would offer three different affordability options. That includes the “deep affordability option,” where developers set aside 20 percent of a project’s units for households making an average of 40 percent of the area median income, with income bands capped at 130 percent AMI.
Those options could be whittled down by the City Council. City of Yes made changes to MIH, allowing the Council to require the deep affordability option on its own. Previously, it could only be offered if provided alongside one of two other options. So, if the Council takes this route, that would mark yet another first for the city.
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