A new proposal to ease New York City’s housing crisis would make way for nearly 10,000 apartments in parts of Midtown Manhattan that do not currently allow new residential construction, a shift officials hope will reinvigorate an area that has come to represent economic challenge.
The plan, which city officials introduced at a Planning Commission meeting on Tuesday, seeks to change the zoning for 42 blocks of the neighborhood. That would allow for some 9,700 additional homes, including 2,900 designed to be affordable for moderate- or lower-income New Yorkers.
“It’s unfathomable that in an area this central, with a housing crisis this dire, that if you wanted to build housing here, our own rules would simply not allow it,” said Dan Garodnick, the head of the Planning Department.
The plan must be approved by the City Council, which is expected to vote on it this year. It is likely to pass because it has the support of the two Manhattan councilmen, Keith Powers and Erik Bottcher, who represent the area, which has struggled to recover from the depths of the coronavirus pandemic.
Mr. Bottcher said “it doesn’t make sense that we have slots of Midtown Manhattan that don’t support housing at all.”
But he said that as discussions around the plan continue over the next few months, it will be important to find a balance between new construction, the conversion of office buildings to apartments and the needs of existing businesses in the area, like the fashion industry.
The Midtown plan is yet another attempt by the administration of Mayor Eric Adams to deal with a housing shortage that is at its worst point in half a century. That scarcity has helped drive up the cost of living substantially, making the city an emblem of America’s deepening affordability crisis.
The issue is already becoming a major focus in the mayor’s race, as Mr. Adams’s challengers seek to outdo one another with promises to make the city more affordable.
And lawmakers have increasingly focused on lifting restrictions on development in recent years. Late last year, the city approved a wide-ranging plan — called City of Yes — to encourage more development all across the city. The plan in Midtown might benefit from some of those changes, Mr. Garodnick said, including one provision that makes it easier to convert struggling office buildings to housing.
Mr. Adams, who has called for 100,000 new homes in Manhattan over the next decade, said in a statement on Tuesday that the Midtown proposal was an example of how the city is “building the neighborhoods of tomorrow with vibrant 24/7 space, affordable housing, and inclusive, dynamic public realm opportunities.”
The proposal would also benefit from changes the State Legislature passed last year that allow the development of taller residential high-rises in Manhattan.
The four areas affected by the plan include swaths between 35th and 40th Streets south of Bryant Park; between 34th and 41st Streets west of Broadway; and two chunks between 23rd and 31st Streets on either side of Sixth Avenue. There are already a variety of buildings in these zones, including several high-rises that were built before zoning restrictions were put in place in the mid-20th century.
At the meeting on Tuesday, city officials said the areas are particularly good places to put more housing because they are close to more than a dozen subway lines. The area is also “job rich,” Mr. Garodnick said, with more than 7,000 businesses and 135,000 jobs.
The Midtown plan is also designed to boost retail in the neighborhood, where vacancies in commercial buildings and less foot traffic have contributed to a feeling of gloom.
“There is a high level of agreement that the status quo is not working in Midtown South,” Mr. Garodnick said. “The neighborhood needs a boost.”
Still, with its potential to reshape a prominent part of the city, the plan most likely will be opposed by those who are skeptical about new development.
“Who is it going to benefit?” said John Mudd, the president of the Midtown South Community Council. “It’s not going to end the homeless issue, it’s not going to end the cost burden issue, it’s not going to bring back people that are artists.”
Even the addition of nearly 10,000 homes will hardly make a dent in New York City’s housing shortage, which is estimated to be in the hundreds of thousands of units. And, as opponents of new developments often argue, it could put more pressure on the city’s infrastructure, including the transit system.
Mr. Mudd said the Midtown rezoning was just one in a series of projects that benefit private developers and ignore the needs of everyday New Yorkers. He pointed to other nearby examples, including the development of market-rate housing on a public housing site and new buildings around Penn Station.
“There’s a lot to deal with,” he said.
