The borough president of the second-most-populated borough said that he won't support Mayor Adams's effort to eliminate mandatory parking citywide and create more housing, giving in to some constituents who favor the "suburban American dream."
On Thursday, Borough President Donovan Richards, once a darling of the livable streets crowd, broke with some allies by saying he can't support the part of the mayor’s City of Yes for Housing Opportunity rezoning that deals with ending the requirement that developers build costly off-street parking spaces, even near transit — a requirement that has inhibited housing development in a city desperate for more units.
First, Richards questioned the Department of City Planning about the proposal to scrap the mandates.
“So you would eliminate parking everywhere, is that correct?” he asked an agency rep after a presentation that made it clear that no parking would be “eliminated,” but that developers would simply be allowed to decide how much parking they would offer — less near transit, perhaps, and more in structures where would-be tenants want it.
Richards was not happy with the answer.
“You can't use the one-size-fits-all approach here,” said Richards. “There are really parts of Queens that are transit deserts. We’re not going to just support that in broad strokes.”
Richards went on to clarify that while he supports lifting parking mandates in higher density areas with many transit options, he feels differently when it comes to the borough's low-density areas.
"We're going to need to see some zones divided," added Richards. "I can't treat parts of eastern Queens and southern Queens with the same broad strokes I could perhaps treat Jamaica or Long Island City."
Advocates immediately pushed back on Richards's take.
"Current parking mandates — arbitrarily set decades ago by planners in Manhattan — are the one-size-fits-all approach," said Sara Lind, co-executive director of Open Plans, a civic group that supports the City of Yes. "Lifting mandates allows for developments to be responsive to local needs for parking. In a housing crisis, we must provide maximum flexibility to create the amount and type of housing needed. Keeping outdated parking mandates does just the opposite."
Richards's fear that developers would take advantage of the end of the parking mandate to not build any parking at all is unfounded. Developers have said that they will still build parking in areas where renters and buyers own cars.
“Market factors are the number one driving force. It's not like nobody is ever going to build parking anymore,” said Tucker Reed, the co-founder of Totem, a development company based in Brooklyn, and former head of the Downtown Brooklyn Partnership. "If you’re catering to a consumer base that requires parking, you’re going to build parking."
Adams's initiative to eliminate parking mandates is less about parking and more about housing. Developers have said that mandates have incentivized "under building," or building less units then zoning allows, because parking is expensive, costing on average over $60,000 per underground space. If the developer builds fewer units in order to avoid triggering the parking mandate, it contributes to higher rents through housing scarcity. If the developer does build costly underground parking in areas where there isn't demand for it, the cost gets passed to renters, which also raises housing costs.
"The idea that there is a 'right' amount of parking for a new building is deeply flawed," said Howard Slatkin, the executive director of the Citizens Housing and Planning Council and a former top official at the Department of City Planning. "The requirement to provide parking also reshapes the buildings and the actions of builders."
Richards's counterparts in Manhattan, Brooklyn and The Bronx have all supported the City of Yes plan, albeit with modifications. Bronx Borough President Vanessa Gibson said she would not support removing parking mandates, while Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso not only supported eliminating parking minimums, but called for the city to set parking maximums to make sure that developers don't overbuild parking near transit. (The lone "no" vote came from Staten Island Borough President Vito Fossella, who represents the least-dense, most car-dependent area of the city.)
Richards’s failure to support eliminating parking mandates comes as a surprise considering he was a StreetsPAC supported candidate and has advocated for transit issues throughout his time in office.
"We would like to see him join Brooklyn BP Reynoso and Manhattan BP Mark Levine in supporting the elimination of parking mandates, which certainly won’t stop developers from including structured parking in car-dependent Queens neighborhoods, but will spur housing creation in western Queens without saddling new buildings with unneeded garages," said StreetsPAC Executive Director Eric McClure.
Whatever supporters think of Richards's position, it is consistent with what his borough's community boards generally think. And commenters at Richards's public hearing raised familiar complaints that City of Yes would supposedly end single-family zoning or eliminate the "suburban" part of the city the “American dream."
“Buying houses, finally having a piece of the American dream, [City of Yes] takes that away from those people,” said Paul DiBenedetto, the chair of Queens Community Board 11. “We voted against [City of Yes] because we know it takes away our way of life.”
Another resident echoed this sentiment.
“The City of Yes is a gift to developers and the expense of Queens residents who worked harder and longer to achieve the American Dream,” said Warren Schreiber, the president of the Queens Civic Congress. "The City of Yes for Housing Opportunity is a direct threat to this dream and the generational wealth it represents."
The mayor's rezoning plan does not eliminate single family zoning, nor does it have any effect on those who already own homes — other than allowing them to build accessory dwelling units ... if they so choose.
This story has been updated to include more information about Borough President Donovan Richard's postion regarding parking mandates.
