Assemblyman Steven Cymbrowitz, D-Sheepshead Bay, was named new chair of the Assembly Housing Committee yesterday. A former Assistant Commissioner of the Division of Housing Production and Finance for HPD and Deputy Commissioner of Development at HPD, Cymbrowitz is the first Assembly Housing Chair in memory with any housing experience. No word yet on if the State Senate will make any committee changes.
Housing will continue in short supply if the construction pipeline doesn’t reverse course. NY Yimby’s 2016 New Construction Report, released this morning, shows drastic declines in building permits vs. 2015 in all boroughs and a 70% decline in Brooklyn since the 2014 peak.
The City Planning Commission this week formally began the review process for rezoning Midtown East to encourage larger and more modern office buildings, an idea launched in the Bloomberg administration that was stalled by landmarks issues, among others. After filing the new plan, Planning Commissioner Carl Weisbrod announced that he was retiring and Marisa Lago was appointed as his replacement.
The NY Police Department monitor charged by the courts with overseeing department responses to lawsuits on Stop and Frisk and the Trespass Affidavit Program (also known as the Clean Halls program) has approved a training video that expressly says that, with an apartment building owner’s permission, patrolling officers can arrest people who have no reason for being in a building and don’t leave when requested.
Commercial carting companies this week staffed a new lobbying effort to fight Mayor de Blasio’s plan for zoned garbage pickup, restricting carters to franchise areas.
The California Apartment Association has filed constitutional challenges to rent control ordinances recently adopted by referendum in Mountain View and Richmond, CA, highlighting a new right to sublease as improperly taking the owner’s control of the property.