Updated: Aug. 07, 2024, 2:02 p.m. | Published: Aug. 07, 2024, 5:50 a.m.
By Paul Liotta | pliotta@siadvance.com
CITY HALL — Mayor Eric Adams’ administration said Tuesday that hizzoner’s housing plan encompasses a broad set of initiatives, but much of it will rely on its most controversial portion.
Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs) account for as many as 40,000 of the 110,000 new units to be built under Adams’ “City of Yes for Housing Opportunity” proposed plan over 15 years, administration officials said Monday, but for Staten Island council members they’re a non-starter.
“More than anything, I don’t understand the politics of this. Presumably, Mayor Adams wants the support of outer borough moderates in the Dem primary less than a year away, and yet, almost all of them hate this idea,” Council Minority Leader Joseph Borelli (R-South Shore) said. “Nobody wants to slap their family’s life savings on a house just to have their neighbor building a campground and some treehouses in their yard. The feeling is the same whether you’re on Staten Island or in Springfield Gardens.”
ADUs refer to backyard cottages, basement apartments, and extensions on existing residences that currently face a series of onerous zoning hurdles to get built, which the “City of Yes” plan would ease.
While the ADU plan has won some support, typically in more developed parts of the city, it has been met with opposition in many of the lower-density neighborhoods around the five boroughs.
When asked Tuesday about tying more than a third of the “City of Yes for Housing Opportunity” plan to one of its most controversial portions, Deputy Mayor Maria Torres Springer said the administration’s goal was to keep the plan “as whole as possible.”
She pointed to a historically-low vacancy rate that has led to a housing shortage around the five boroughs.
In February, the city Department for Housing Preservation and Development highlighted a 1.4% rental vacancy rate in the five boroughs — according to the New York City Housing and Vacancy Survey (NYCHVS), a survey conducted in partnership with the U.S. Census Bureau roughly every three years since 1965.
ADU Pilot Program
Adams’ administration opened a pilot program in November to test the waters for local development of ADUs, and announced an expansion Monday.
The expansion to the “Plus One ADU” program came with a $4 million grant, which will provide up to $395,000 to individual homeowners hoping to develop an ADU on their property.
People hoping to participate in the program need to use their home as a primary residence at least nine months out of the year while being current on any existing mortgages, and not have outstanding municipal arrears or be in an active payment plan to pay those arrears.
Eligible properties will be one-unit, single-family detached residential homes free of housing or building code violations not related to an ADU. The properties must allow for two-family construction under the existing building and zoning code, pass a housing quality inspection and need no major repairs other than those that are essential to the ADU construction.
ADUs that can be supported using funds from the program are attached or detached existing or new structures and basement or attic unit conversions.
For basement conversions, the applicable ADU space must meet ceiling height requirements prior to conversion and must be located outside of the 2050 Stormwater Flood area, as well as the 2100′s 100-year coastal flood zone.
Advocates tout ADUs as a financial boon for homeowners who can either rent out the extra units or have family members live nearby.
Community Opposition
Many single-family homeowners have long railed against ADUs as too drastic a change to their neighborhoods. But Adams’ plan hasn’t been without Staten Island support.
Staten Island Community Board 1, which covers the North Shore and called the ADU portion of the plan “the most community beneficial item.” The North Shore Community Board also noted that the ADU plan “probably won’t be widespread.”
That body’s Council counterpart, Councilwoman Kamillah Hanks (D-North Shore), has expressed opposition to the ADU expansion, and said it was a main driver in the “City of Yes” review task force she announced last month.
“The reason I created a City of Yes modification task force, is to address the significant concerns with the City of Yes for Housing Opportunity initiative, particularly regarding ADUs,” she said. “While this initiative aims to promote housing solutions and urban development, it is crucial that we carefully examine and understand the impacts this will have on our communities.”
Likewise, the Island’s Mid-Island and South Shore boards — Community Board 2 and 3, respectively — came out in general opposition to the city’s housing plan.
In a review of the ADU plan, Community Board 3 wrote a bit about the impact the group believes the expansion would have on the South Shore.
“Weakening zoning requirements to allow ADUs is unsuitable for a neighborhood’s quality of life. Reducing side, front, and rear lot requirements will adversely affect the adjacent property,” the group wrote. “The image that seniors or adult children will live in these dwellings is delusional. ADUs will be a profitable tool for developers and builders. You can’t legislate who lives in ADUs.”
While the city’s community boards have an advisory capacity in the Department of City Planning’s review of “City of Yes for Housing Opportunity,” the City Council will get an official say on if and how the plan passes by the end of the year.
On Staten Island, it doesn’t look like the current plan will get much support from the borough’s three members.
“Staten Islanders have been abundantly clear on the ADU proposal in the City of Yes: this is not what we want. This program is just an end-around the required approval process to force more ADUs into our neighborhoods,” Councilman David Carr (R-Mid-Island) said.
“To claim continued building and stress on our infrastructure, as well as refusal to require parking spaces in a car-based-borough, will not affect the character and quality of life in our communities is not just absurd, it ignores the lived experience of every borough resident. My position on this and the City of Yes remains unchanged – regardless of its efficacy city-wide, blanket proposals will not solve Staten Island’s issues. Problem solving needs to be done on a case-by-case and neighborhood-by-neighborhood basis.”