Mayor de Blasio released his detailed 116-page Housing Plan, Monday, with these near term milestones: begin a study on mandatory inclusionary zoning; study existing inclusionary zoning rules; study how to speed the permitting and review process; and study vacant and underused public property that could be developed. He proposed to double direct City capital spending on affordable housing over the next ten years, to about $8.2 billion, but relies on almost $3 billion in State and Federal spending and another $30 billion in private equity to meet his goals.
Yesterday he released his Executive Budget Proposal, calling for no specific property tax increase but anticipating about $847 million in additional property tax collections from increased assessments and new buildings. That is about a 4.5 percent increase over all property classes.
The Mayor believes that limiting rents preserves housing, and his six new appointees to the Rent Guidelines Board followed up his Housing Plan, Monday night, by proposing Rent Stabilized renewal lease increases of 0 to 3.5 percent for one year leases and .5 to 4.5 percent increases for two year leases. The new owner representative that the Mayor just appointed even voted for the proposal. Final guidelines will be decided June 23rd after public hearings in the Bronx, Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens.
Maybe building owners can save on energy costs by using incentives for combined heat and power systems (cogeneration). NYSERDA is having a heat and power open house to explain the benefits May 20th, from 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. at the Brooklyn Sheraton, 228 Duffield Street..
The irony department this week features tenant organizations lobbying Albany against bills to make subletting through Airbnb legal. They are mostly concerned about building owners rather than tenants abusing the system, but legislation proposed in Albany would allow subletting by “individuals that rent out their own units to help make ends meet and earn extra income.” Sounds a lot like landlords.
Finally, congratulations to ABO member Mike Fazio on his election as President of the New York State Builders Association Research and Education Foundation.