Andrew Cuomo’s housing plan calls for building apartments near houses of worship, transit stations and in industrial areas. The former governor singled out one type of neighborhood, however, where he would not pursue any ambitious development agenda: low-density areas.
Cuomo’s plan points to the recently enacted City of Yes housing reforms, which promise to build 82,000 new homes over 15 years largely by adding backyard cottages and small apartment buildings to low-rise neighborhoods outside of Manhattan that have barely grown in recent decades. “With limited exceptions such as transit-oriented development, Gov. Cuomo does not favor further zoning changes in these low-density neighborhoods at least until the impact of recent rezoning efforts are absorbed in these areas,” the plan reads.
That brief mention in the 29-page plan released over the weekend was overshadowed by the revelation that Cuomo’s campaign used ChatGPT to help draft the policy paper. But the stance is notable, since it contradicts much recent thinking by city policymakers and distinguishes him from mayoral rivals who call for building on City of Yes with more construction in low-density neighborhoods.
“He makes a pretty significant departure from where the city has been going and where the state seems to be going, to require that every neighborhood step up and provide some housing,” said Vicki Been, faculty director at New York University’s Furman Center. The policy group has published research showing that low-density neighborhoods make up 45% of the city’s land area but just 28% of its population.
Cuomo’s stance is not entirely surprising, given that his campaign rests in part on his strong support in middle-class, homeowner-heavy neighborhoods in Eastern Queens and Southern Brooklyn. The City of Yes plan received heavy criticism in those areas, where residents objected to what they called a Manhattanization of their neighborhoods. (Outer-borough lawmakers and civic groups filed suit last month in hopes of overturning the zoning changes.)
Howard Slatkin, executive director of the nonprofit Citizens Housing and Planning Council, argued that Cuomo’s stance looked less like a firm policy commitment and more like a “political signal” to low-density neighborhoods.
“What you’re seeing is a difference in emphasis which may have substance to it,” Slatkin said, noting that Cuomo did leave room to exceptions, such as building housing near transit in low-density areas. “I read this as the statement of a candidate trying to reassure voters in low-density neighborhoods that he is on their side.”
Several mayoral candidates have differed from Cuomo by proposing more development in low-density areas. City Comptroller Brad Lander has called for holding a ballot referendum on the original City of Yes plan, which, before being watered down by the City Council, would have allowed even more construction in low-rise areas. And socialist Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani has said he would seek to “upzone” wealthier neighborhoods to increase housing capacity.
Other candidates have not explicitly called for changing zoning in low-rise neighborhoods. State Sen. Zellnor Myrie, who is focusing his campaign on a pledge to build 700,000 homes in a decade, has said he would achieve that by building more in Midtown, on public housing campuses and in undeveloped sites like the Brooklyn Marine Terminal.
Cuomo’s plan calls City of Yes an “important but ultimately insufficient step” toward relieving the city’s housing shortage. “The opportunity exists for significantly more housing made possible through rezoning in high-density areas, manufacturing districts, and other targeted opportunities,” it reads, without specifying particular neighborhoods.
Omitting low-density areas from future rezonings would not only contradict City of Yes, Been noted. It would also go against other recent stabs at reform, such Gov. Kathy Hochul’s short-lived growth mandates and City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams’ Fair Housing Framework, which — though it lacks any enforcement mechanism — aims to spread out the city’s uneven development patterns by studying which neighborhoods have built the least.
Cuomo’s housing plan calls for building or preserving 500,000 new units in the next decade, matching a similar target set by Adams at the start of his term. He would achieve that by rezoning “targeted” high-density areas such as Midtown South — where the Adams administration is already pursuing a major rezoning — and, potentially, pushing for changes to the 485-x tax break enacted last year, which developers have said will produce little housing due to its labor-friendly wage standards for construction workers. (Pushing for changes could put Cuomo in an awkward spot, since his campaign enjoys the strong support of labor unions like the District Council of Carpenters that helped negotiate those wages.)
Other aspects of Cuomo’s plan mirror proposals already percolating, such as partnering with faith-based organizations to build on their surplus land — the goal of a pending state bill — and investing city pension funds into affordable housing construction, as both candidates for comptroller have also proposed. He also wants to partner with the state on a $5 billion fund to increase subsidies for affordable projects, and said he would invite private real estate firms to study the city’s own property holdings for development opportunities.
