City Slows Plan for Market-Rate Units on Public Housing Land
By MIREYA NAVARRO
Facing fierce opposition from tenants in public housing projects, the administration of Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg is slowing down plans to lease land in some developments for market-rate apartments.
Officials with the New York City Housing Authority announced on Friday that instead of requesting formal proposals to build on the grounds of eight housing projects in Manhattan, as previously envisioned, they would first solicit ideas from private developers — so-calledexpressions of interest — before choosing any construction projects.
Also, while the agency initially focused on leasing the land for residential units, officials are now encouraging proposals that would incorporate retail stores, community facilities and other uses on the ground floors, which many public housing residents favor. These nonresidential uses would require broad community and city review, as well as approval by the City Council, because they deviate from existing zoning guidelines in seven of the eight housing projects, officials said.
The plan was Mr. Bloomberg’s major initiative to generate revenue for public housing, but it has instead generated widespread concern among public housing residents. Although housing officials said they could still select developers by the end of this year, it is unclear what the announcement on Friday means given the change in administrations after the November election.
“This isn’t quite a white flag of surrender, but it’s pretty close,” Christine C. Quinn, the City Council speaker and a mayoral candidate, said, adding, “In essence, what they put out was a request for information for the next mayor.”
Ms. Quinn and most mayoral candidates raised objections to the original plan, but have yet to put forth specific revenue raising plans of their own to help the financially strained public housing system and its more than 400,000 residents. The chairman of the housing authority, John B. Rhea, said he expected to get from developers “compelling” designs that would give any administration “a better hand to play in making a decision.”
“This has never been about speed,” he said. “We want to get it right, and we want to maximize the opportunity before us.”
The authority wants to raise more than $50 million a year on long-term leases for 14 parcels within eight housing projects in some of the city’s most desirable areas, including Lower Manhattan and the Upper West Side. It is trying to cope with severe cuts in federal financing. There is no state or city money forthcoming to replace it to help meet the agency’s $6 billion in unmet capital needs.
But the plan, which needs final approval from the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development, has met resistance from many residents, community groups and local elected officials, who accused the authority of rushing to put it in place without enough public consultation.
Even as the city shifts from its original plan, the concept of leasing land for mostly market-rate apartments — with 20 percent of the 4,000 new units in the plan designated as affordable to lower-income households — is still being resisted.
Assemblyman Brian Kavanagh of Manhattan, a critic of land leasing, said there was still the basic question of what the impact would be of “building thousands of new residential units in the middle of densely populated neighborhoods.”
Mr. Kavanagh added, “Today’s announcement may be a welcomed slow down in the process, but it doesn’t change that basic fact.”
And many residents remain suspicious, even as housing officials have tweaked the plan to limit the height of the new buildings and make the eight projects leasing their lands first in line for public housing repairs and upgrades of facades, plumbing and electrical and heating systems.
“We need decision-making together,” said Jane Wisdom, president of the tenants association at Douglass Houses on the Upper West Side. “We still need to know what the ending is.”
At least one legal challenge to the proposal looms for the city. Steven Banks, attorney in chief of the Legal Aid Society, said he was planning a lawsuit on behalf of public housing residents, arguing that “the housing authority can’t dispose of property that’s intended to be used for low income New Yorkers and instead provide luxury housing.”
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