City Proposes No-Cost Incentives for Hudson Yards Housing Developers

NEW YORK CITY-The Departments of City Planning and Housing Preservation & Development unveiled the Hudson Yards Affordable Housing Strategy, a revision of the Hudson Yards Development Plan. This new strategy is designed to provide increased affordable housing in this West Side development area. One component call for a larger incentive for developers to create affordable housing by lowering “as-of-right” density and in exchange requiring a greater share of affordable units. The density increase would be as much as 33%; currently it averages around 20%. A DCP spokesperson tells GlobeSt.com that there has already been “active interest in developing residential sites in the area.”

The program would also extend the Inclusionary Zoning Program within the rezoning area to include the neighboring Hells Kitchen community. The third element is to enhance the current preservation option to ensure that more existing units would be preserved in exchange for increased density.

The 40-year redevelopment plan calls for the creation of 13,600 new residential units with a total of 2,600 affordable units. This is an increase of 500 affordable housing units over the number that would have been generated by the Hudson Yards proposal certified in June. The plan involves the area from West 30th Street to West 43rd Street, and Seventh and Eighth avenues to 12th Avenue. It is bordered by Clinton to the north, Chelsea to the south, the Hudson River to the west and the Garment Center and Midtown to the east.