Hochul Pitches IBX Transit-Oriented Housing ‘Dream’

Gov. Hochul’s vision for the proposed Interborough Express light-rail between Brooklyn and Queens includes a hell of a lot more housing — despite the caterwauls of opponents who’d rather the city not make room for more people, the governor said Wednesday.

“I’m committed to transit-oriented development. This will be the embodiment of the dream to have more transit-oriented development,” Hochul told reporters during her appearance at an MTA sidewalk “pop-up” to collect public feedback about the project.

Speaking alongside Assembly Member Claire Valdez (D-Ridgewood), the Democratic nominee to succeed U.S. Rep. Nydia Velazquez next year, Hochul talked up the IBX as a way to facilitate sustainable city growth, and vowed to get the project done with or without money from the federal government.

As the governor framed it, she views the IBX as more than an effort to make it easier to get between Brooklyn and Queens without a car, but as an opportunity to encourage denser population growth near mass transit — the type of development that his long-powered New York City’s growth.

“When you have land that is a low value, it’s abandoned land or sometimes it’s just parking lots next to subway stations, it should have a higher and better use,” the governor said. “And housing is the answer.”

The IBX will add 18 light rail stops between Sunset Park and Jackson Heights to the MTA system, with transfers to the existing subway stations at 12 stops. That has the potential to spur the construction of 60,000 new units of housing, transit officials said, by massively increasing the number of job, educational and cultural centers people can access within 30 minutes by transit.

As governor, Hochul has tried to encourage more up-zoning in suburbs and suburban-coded areas of the city with access to transit, though her first push to get a statewide housing plan through faltered in the 2023 budget.

But in the case of the Interborough Express, the governor has a seemingly willing partner in Mayor Mamdani, who has pushed for massive increases in city-funded housing as well as private development.

Earlier this year, Mamdani’s Department of City Planning kicked off a rezoning study along Coney Island and McDonald avenues, a study that the department said “will also help the City and surrounding communities prepare for the MTA’s future Interborough Express (IBX), which will serve the area.”

Hochul on Wesnesday also talked about the funding challenges ahead for the IBX.

So far, the state has committed $2.75 billion to cover half of the projected $5.5 billion price tag for the project. Normally, a project like the IBX would be a shoo-in for matching funds from the federal government. But MTA Chair Janno Lieber has said the MTA is exploring ways to cover the rest of the cost itself if the federal government refuses to help, as it has done repeatedly with transit projects since President Trump returned to office last year.

In addition to the MTA’s own planning, some transit wonks have pitched the idea of a “land value tax” which would take advantage of the higher property values wrought by the IBX to pay for the project.

On Wednesday, Hochul expressed hope that members of Congress like Valdez could secure the bag if Democrats re-take control of the House of Representatives after November’s mid-term elections. But she also said that if New York had to fund the whole project itself, she was willing to go that route.

“In terms of the funding, I hope to be around for a number of years, and I’m committed to getting this done. If the state has to step up in a bigger way, the state will step up in a bigger way,” Hochul said. “This is a critically important project to me, to the people of these two boroughs and a statement of our priorities.”