NYC City Council Greenlights Jamaica Rezoning

The City Council on Wednesday approved the rezoning of 230 blocks in Jamaica, Queens, marking the fourth neighborhood rezoning approved during the Adams administration.

The plan is expected to create 11,800 housing units, of which 4,200 will be permanently affordable. The rezoning includes the largest Mandatory Inclusionary Housing zone — which requires a certain percentage of housing units to be set aside as affordable — ever mapped in the city.

Before approving the proposal, the City Council reduced the density allowed in areas south of downtown Jamaica and removed portions of certain districts along the southern corridor from the rezoning. The changes cut 490 units off the city’s housing projections for the rezoning, which were initially pegged at 12,300 units.

The Adams administration also committed $413 million for infrastructure, parks, schools and other improvements. That pledge is on top of the more than $300 million promised as part of the City of Yes for Housing Opportunity.

The rezoning allows more residential development in an area where new construction has been stunted by low-density and manufacturing zoning, as well as parking requirements.

The City Council has approved four neighborhood rezonings during the Adams administration: Midtown South, Atlantic Avenue, areas around four planned Metro-North stations in the Bronx and now Jamaica. On Wednesday, the City Council Committee on Land Use and the Subcommittee on Zoning and Franchises signed off on the Long Island City rezoning, which is expected to pave the way for 14,700 new homes over the next decade.

Speaker Adrienne Adams has pointed to the Jamaica rezoning as a prime example of why the City Council is critical to the city’s land use review process. Specifically, Adams opposes three housing ballot measures aimed at streamlining the review process and getting around City Council members who consistently reject housing in their districts.

The only ballot question that would apply to this rezoning, however, is one that would create a three-person appeals board that could override City Council decisions. The board doesn’t preclude the Council from pushing for investments, and it wouldn’t be able to reverse any non-zoning-related elements of the Council’s decisions on land use actions. Still, the board could decrease the Council’s leverage in negotiations over investments because the Council members couldn’t dangle rejection of a rezoning as effectively.