How New York’s Next Mayor Can Shape Land Use and Planning: Where to Build

There is immense need for additional housing in New York City. In accommodating more housing, a fundamental question for city officials—and especially the mayor, who oversees the agencies responsible for land use planning—is where to allow that housing to be built. By increasing the size or density of building permitted to be constructed in certain neighborhoods, the city can guide new development into those areas. Where to allow additional housing is a crucial question facing the next administration. In particular, the pattern of rezonings over the last two decades (as well as the immense inequities flowing from the city’s history of residential segregation) raises the question of whether to prioritize new development in neighborhoods where a majority of residents are high-income or low-income.