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Hudson Yards calculus adds up to too little affordable housing

Published: Thursday, December 3, 2009 3:20 PM CST
By Diane Vacca 
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Affordable housing advocates recently made clear their intention to derail the 13-acre development proposed for the Western Rail Yards unless the project is significantly revised to include permanently affordable units on the site. 

State and city elected officials, Community Board 4 and members of local civic organizations all denounced the lack of permanently affordable housing at a Nov. 23 public hearing on the proposed Hudson Yards rezoning held before the City Council Subcommittee on Zoning and Franchises.

For City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, whose West Side district covers the rail yards, the “most important issue is housing.” She testified in person, stating she expects from the developer “a guarantee of the minimum number of permanently affordable units on site.”

Developer the Related Companies—which first needs to build a $1 billion platform over the working, Metropolitan Transit Authority-owned rail yards between 30th and 33rd Sts. from 10th to 11th Aves.—has proposed making less than a tenth of the 5,000-some residential units affordable.

The platform will maintain the area’s street grid and support eight towers (one commercial and seven primarily residential) within five acres of open space. The residential space will total approximately 3.8 million square feet (4,624 units) to 4.8 million square feet (5,762 units). About 40 percent of these units will be rental and 20 percent below market rate, resulting in 370 to 460 affordable units—which amounts to 8 percent of the total.

This number is “woefully unacceptable,” according to Assemblymember Richard Gottfried’s testimony at the hearing. He insisted that a minimum of 20 percent of all the units should be permanently affordable, because including co-ops and condos “ensures a more diverse neighborhood and allows for individuals and families to grow within the community.”

Under the state’s 80/20 program, tax-exempt bonds are available to the developer to finance projects in exchange for the creation affordable housing for low-income tenants. After a number of years the units revert to market rate. Related is not legally bound to provide this type of affordable housing, and the developer has cited the high cost of the project—including the extraordinarily expensive platform—as an impediment to adding more affordable housing on the site.

Instead, Related is seeking to locate the permanently affordable housing associated with the development off site on two lots. One lot, on 10th Ave. between 48th and 49th Sts., is owned by the city Department of Environmental Protection and would contain 204 units. The other, on Ninth Ave. and 53rd St., is owned by the MTA and would contain 108 units.

“The two off-site developments of roughly 300 affordable units pale in comparison to the approximately 5,000 mostly market-rate units to be built on the rail yards site,” read testimony submitted by State Sen. Thomas Duane. “The temporarily affordable units that will be built will not target the middle- and moderate-income families that the community so desires,” he added.

This was not the only criticism leveled against the off-site housing. Both proposals include the request to exceed the hard-won height limits mandated for the Special Clinton District, an area in Hell’s Kitchen where residents are adamantly opposed to allowing an exception to the zoning. The rationale for exceeding the district’s six-story height limit is to make room for more housing, an allowance that Board 4 reluctantly agreed to when it approved of the rezoning this summer. Consequently, the MTA’s proposal to include 30,000 square feet of office space and 15 parking spaces for its own use on its site was repeatedly rejected at the hearing. According to critics, that space could produce at least another 30 affordable units.

Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer and Joe Restuccia, co-chairperson of Board 4’s Housing, Health and Human Services Committee, both cited the threat posed by upscale development to the area’s affordable housing stock. They proposed demolition restrictions for existing affordable properties and endorsed the development of the few remaining publicly owned parcels in the area for affordable housing.

Housing Committee co-chairperson Sarah Desmond would like to persuade Related to study and use the “creative plan” developed by Board 4 that would “achieve 30 percent permanent affordability in the Western Rail Yards, that includes 20 percent on-site permanent affordability, multiple locations off-site and preservation of additional Section 8 and endangered Single Room Occupancy hotels located within our district,” according to her testimony.

Although there were objections to other aspects of the proposal, such as its “overwhelming” scale and density, inadequate infrastructure, public accessibility to the open space, and the adverse impact on both pedestrians and vehicular traffic, the affordable housing question was the object of overriding concern.

According to Duane, the “lack of permanently affordable housing is unacceptable.”

The subcommittee is required to vote on the project by Dec. 11.


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