The City Council is exploring construction code reforms that it says could squeeze up to 35,000 new apartments out of the city’s most overlooked parcels: small, odd-shaped lots peppered across all five boroughs.
Council Speaker Julie Menin unveiled the push Friday at an American Institute of Architects event in Lower Manhattan, framing it as a way to unlock housing where current regulations make it tough to build without pursuing time-consuming and costly zoning changes. The Council hasn’t set a timeline, and said it is in early talks with the Mamdani administration on the effort.
In a statement shared with The Real Deal, Menin blamed “outdated rules and unnecessary red tape” for stalling development on underused lots as the city grapples with tight supply, soaring rents and an overall vacancy rate below 1 percent.
“At a moment when vacancy is at historic lows and rents are at record highs, we have an obligation to act boldly and deliver real results for New Yorkers,” Menin added.
Menin’s announcement signals a stake in the ground that the Council is prioritizing pro-housing policies.
A preliminary Council analysis found that code tweaks could unlock new units on roughly 2,850 small lots — between 15- and 27-feet wide — that are either vacant or in non-residential use.
Unlike the City of Yes for Housing Opportunity, which expanded supply through zoning changes like accessory dwelling units on small lots, the Council is framing the effort as a targeted look at stripping out potentially onerous code requirements to incentivize housing on tiny parcels, where the math to make a project financially viable can be especially tight.
For example, modifying emergency exit and hallway requirements could allow developers to build up to eight stories instead of six without investing in add-ons, or eliminating the need for a trash room on each floor could trim costs and help projects pencil out.
In 2019, the Department of Housing Preservation and Development and AIA New York launched a design competition called Big Ideas Small Lots that sought creative solutions to transform difficult-to-develop properties into affordable housing. The winning designs, however, were never adopted by developers. (Notably, Menin’s announcement today does not specify whether new units created through reforms would be restricted to affordable housing.)
To shape the reforms, Menin also announced the creation of a Council Advisory Group on Housing Affordability made up of largely yet-to-be-appointed construction and design experts, financiers, community organizations and others tasked with refining Council proposals to boost and preserve the city’s housing.
The advisory group will be co-chaired with Gary LaBarbera, president of the Building and Construction Trades Council of Greater New York, Barika Williams, executive director of the Association for Neighborhood and Housing Development, and James Simmons III, the CEO and Founder of Asland Capital Partners.
Once the Council settles on the code tweaks, it plans to push city legislation and advocate for any state changes needed to get them over the finish line, the Speaker’s office said.
Read more
City Council to Mamdani: No need to raise property taxes
Mamdani’s HPD head: “We don’t take over properties”
City Council eyes return of controversial property-seizure program
