Top Manhattan police officials are calling on Albany to finally repeal a decades-old state law blamed for exacerbating the Big Apple’s housing shortage, leaving the state “into another era.” The newspaper reported that it was being destroyed as a “relic.”
The push, scheduled to be announced Wednesday, is supported by Manhattan Borough President Mark Levin and most of the island’s city council delegation, and is urging Gov. Kathy Hochul and state legislative leaders to pass it this year. They are calling for the repeal of the 1961 law to be included in the final budget.
“This law is a relic from another era, and believe it or not, it was enacted in the 1960s when the city was concerned about overdevelopment of housing and not enough office space,” Levine said. told the Post. “Today it’s the opposite situation.”
The controversial bill requires buildings to be no more than 12 times the lot size, and as the Post Investigative recently revealed, popular block sizes along Central Park West and Fifth Avenue. The construction of the building is prohibited because it is 20 to 30 stories high. .
Proponents of the ordinance, known as the 12 FAR cap, argue that it protects the Big Apple, especially Manhattan, from overdevelopment and protects the character of historic neighborhoods that would otherwise be filled with glass towers. are doing.
But the law does the opposite, according to a Post review. That means blocking the construction of apartment complexes, such as the elegant and famous buildings that line Central Park, while allowing the construction of glass “pencil towers” that house just a handful of apartments.
The list of prohibited structures includes the famous El Dorado at 300 Central Park West. The Eldorado will feature 208 apartments in a 29-story tower that calls itself “candle-like.”
According to a Columbia University study, the law could have cost Gotham potentially 200,000 apartments over several decades, about half of the city’s 342,000-unit housing shortage. The amount is sufficient to fill the
“When you look along Central Park West, you see one glorious building after another that couldn’t be built today because there are too many apartments. This is ridiculous,” Levine said.
The push is backed by seven of the Manhattan City Council’s 10 members (Democrats Carlina Rivera, Eric Bottcher, Keith Powers, Julie Menin, Sean Abreu, Diana Ayala and Yousef Salaam) and the city’s largest is supported by the District, one of the municipal unions in the United States. This was announced by the 37th Council and Levine’s office.
