Law Could Increase Height Of Looming NYC Buildings, Opponents Say

BROOKLYN HEIGHTS, NY — A Brooklyn group is asking the state to kill a bill that would lift the size limit on residential buildings in the city, fearing it could add too much density to already over-developed neighborhoods.

The Brooklyn Heights Association started a push this week to stop the change in the law after it was tacked onto the State Senate's budget resolution that's expected to be passed next month.

"It would add even greater density in areas in the city that are already extremely dense," said Peter Bray, executive director of the group.

"This would have a major impact on the city and there's been no public discussion of this legislation by the de Blasio administration, and I think that that's really shameful."

While the bill is expected to make it through the senate, Assemblywoman Jo Anne Simon doesn't think the law change will get through the House.

"I think that this is not an issue the Assembly cares about, this is not something we think is good," said Simon, who represents Brooklyn Heights.

"It would be the largest change to our zoning in 50 years, it would allow for so much density. You don't do something like that for legislation that nobody supports."

A spokesman for Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie did not respond to a request for comment.

The bill would remove the cap on residential building's floor area ratio (FAR) which controls the size and height of structures. State law passed in 1961 currently caps the FAR at 12, which means it can't have more than 12 times the square footage of the lot that it's on.

Mayor Bill de Blasio started a push to remove the limit in 2014 as part of his plan to add or preserve 300,000 affordable housing units around the city, but previous versions of the bill never made it out of committee, according to AM New York and state records.

Proponents of the bill said it's another way the state imposes its will on the city and removing it would allow the city to increase the amount of affordable housing it could build.

"We must have the authority to develop denser residential buildings in all five boroughs when we as a city, through our normal land use approval mechanisms, believe it’s in the city’s best interest," City Councilman Rory Lancman wrote in the New York Daily News.

"A higher FAR will give us more options to decide how we want our neighborhoods to look and develop, but will still allow us to incorporate community input in the same way we do now."

The influential urban planning group, the Regional Plan Association, also threw its support behind the bill earlier this year. It wrote a report that found "high-rise" neighborhoods around the city, like Downtown Brooklyn and Long Island City, could support the added density and it would allow for "properly sized" apartments to be built.

Both Lancman and the RPA argue that monster towers won't spring up overnight if the law's changed because developers would still need to go through the city's long Uniform Land Use Review Procedure (ULURP) for approval.

"Some worry that repealing the FAR cap would lead to behemoth buildings sprouting up where they don’t belong," the RPA wrote.

"But repealing the FAR cap would be just the first step in a process that would give local communities more control over their zoning and land use. Developers who want to build bigger buildings would still be subject to ULURP and other local planning requirements."

However, plans having to go through ULURP doesn't quell Bray's fears about removing the limit because he said the community's voice is regularly squashed during the process.

"That's a complete fiction because ULURP is manipulated by the city to get what it wants and the community input to the ULURP process is strictly advisory," said Bray. "For the most part, regardless of what the community wants, these things tend to sail through.

It has the appearance of community participation, but it's a sham."

Bray also worried that it would do little to help the city's need for cheaper places to live because "affordable" housing can tend to leave out many residents in neighborhoods.

A Curbed report found that 62 percent of affordable housing units around the city are unaffordable to one-person households in the neighborhoods based on census data.

While the city adjusts income requirements by family size, it doesn't close the gap enough for residents to afford many "affordable" units available, it said.

Image: Spencer Platt/Getty Images