Saturday, November 15, 2014

Go ahead and build, we'll pay for the amenities

From the Real Deal:

The city will shoulder a higher share of costs associated with creating public benefits such as schools and parks, in order to encourage more developers to address the affordable housing crisis, chairman of the City Planning Commission Carl Weisbrod said on a panel today.

Under the Bill de Blasio administration, Weisbrod expects to see a reversal of several decades of public policy. Whereas in the past the city required developers to pay for parks, schools and public spaces in exchange for incentives such as upzoning, the city will now take on more of that burden.

“I think we are going to see a more traditional role for what government pays for and what the private sector pays for,” Weisbrod said. “We will see government pay for schools, public investments, open spaces, that in the past few decades we did [lay] on developers.”

“We should ask the private sector to do what it does well, which is housing,” he added. The administration is, however, much to the chagrin of developers, taking away voluntary inclusionary zoning and replacing it with mandatory inclusionary zoning.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

There should be a moratorium on all development. The infrastructure can't handle anymore pele. Want affordable housing? Try moving to any of the 47 states that have a lower cost of living than New York.

Anonymous said...

Alternatively anon if you think it's too crowded move to anywhere else in the country that is less crowded.

Anonymous said...

Stunted housing growth has let to skyrocketing housing costs. A moratorium is the last thing the city needs.

Anonymous said...

Big real estate developers should be paying more for public amenities - not less. This story that they need assistance to make a profit is BS. I once worked for one. These people have cash to burn.

Leeches like this never stop crying the blues but ultimately always seem to make a killing.

Again and again and again we see that, in actuality, DEVELOPERS need New York. NEW YORK doesn't need developers.

If the developers currently in play in this city can't cut it without city handouts then it's time to expand the pool of developers the city chooses from. Make these lazy recipients of NYC's generous corporate welfare compete against other developers who don't need it. Isn't that how free market capitalism is supposed to work?

Anonymous said...

Developers that want to work at arms length from the government just avoid New York City, it's too much of a hassle and they are at a competitive disadvantage to the developers who have bought and paid for local and state politicians to do their bidding.

The entanglement of the government and housing is something a vast majority of city residents want to embrace and extend, not reform.

Anonymous said...

Anon who said nyc limits developers? Anyone with $500 per buildable square foot can buy a lot and another 500-750 per buildable square foot can throw up some condos. The problem is all the rich people willing to pay a million dollars for a small thousand square foot condo. Because they bid the price of land up high enough so that costs pre builder profit are close to a million. It's a constrained market with slow growth in housing stock. If you own you benefit from the shortage because your asset is appreciating. If you're rich you can still buy, most of the market is targeting you. If you aren't rich and don't own yet you're fucked. You need faster growth, try 2% a year, to bring down currently stratospheric prices. But then people complain about overdevelopment. How their neighborhood is changing....

Anonymous said...

The cost to maintain and supply the infrastructure that supports development is paid from either taxing the public or cutting back on their services to cover the hole in the budget from tax breaks for developers.

It far exceeds the tax revenue new developments generates.

Development is a massive wealth transfer from the poor to the rich.

Jerry Rotondi said...

Wadaya mean "we'll pay" Mayor Di Blah Blah? Is it out of your personal pocket or us taxpayers' pockets?
I guess I just answered my own question. Developers should be paying for the increased burden on transportation and city services UNLESS each affected taxpayer is offered a percentage of the profits reaped by the developers. We know you received a lot of campaign contributions from the developers you now support in return. How about YOU kicking back some of that money to build parks, schools, etc. ? P.S. I won't be voting for you the second time around.

Anonymous said...

Bend over Mr Mayor and see what it feels like for us to get porked by your developer pals. Ouch! That knobbed dildo really hurts, doesn't it?