Our Positions

New York City Housing Authority’s Unused Development Rights

Community Board #3 has a very high concentration of NYCHA housing projects with unused development rights, particularly the Smith and Baruch Houses. These are among the largest projects in New York City. Therefore, Two Bridges Neighborhood Council has a strong vested interest in what NYCHA plans to do with these sites.

The process of gentrification has already displaced countless poor families from our community, and may actually be accelerated by the recently approved East Village/Lower East Side Rezoning. NYCHA and the City’s policy makers should look closely at the surrounding communities when they make decisions on the best use of publicly owned development rights.

Many communities have created 197A plans (community-sponsored development and improvement plans) or community-driven master plans that can help guide the development goals of NYCHA. Community Board #3 has some of the poorest census tracts in the city. Residents living in these neighborhoods should have an opportunity to improve their living conditions, rather than be forced out by the next wave of commercial and luxury development.

Under previous administrations, the wholesale selling of private lots in the Lower East Side and the rest of the City was the impetus for the last wave of gentrification. The needs of long-term residents were ignored and the city was for sale to the highest bidder. Two Bridges believes that NYCHA should carefully formulate a long-term plan for these public assets, rather than sell them off piecemeal to the highest bidders.

We are also concerned about the sale of public assets because once they are sold they are forever lost to the public domain. Economic conditions change and new opportunities arise. For example, new forms of construction could make building much more efficient, but the City would not be able to build on land that had already been sold. Therefore, we support long-term leases and public-private partnerships under which the City retains an interest in the developments. The bottom line is that NYCHA’s air rights and unused parcels belong to the people of New York, especially the working people who need a decent and safe place to live.

Two Bridges is interested in working closely with the City’s policy makers on a long-term plan and strategy that will create more affordable housing for the hardworking people of New York, who are being forced out by developer greed and shortsighted public policies.

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