KeyNote Submission
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Bringing Together
Foresight.
And Insight.
City of Yes: A Conversation with the New York City Planning Commissioner
July 9, 2025
Article authored by:
Jason M. Barr is a professor of economics at Rutgers University-Newark, the New York LAI chapter president, and the Land Economics Foundation Treasurer. Dr. Barr is the author of Building the Skyline: The Birth and Growth of Manhattan’s Skyscrapers (OUP, 2016) and Cities in the Sky: The Quest to Build the World’s Tallest Skyscrapers (Scribner 2014). He currently writes the Skynomics Blog, a blog about skyscrapers, cities, and economics. In 2024, he won the LAI International Author Award.
New York City is experiencing a housing affordability crisis. The 2023 New York City Housing and Vacancy Survey revealed the city’s rental vacancy rate to be 1.41%, the lowest figure in over six decades. Among renters with incomes of less than $70,000 (the median in 2023), the typical household pays more than half of its income on housing.
When Mayor Eric Adams took office in 2022, one of his priorities was to change the rules and regulations that prevented or slowed down New York from adding needed housing that could help improve affordability. His policy agenda, City of Yes for Housing Opportunity, contained a suite of reforms to make housing construction easier and less costly. To this end, City Planning Commissioner Daniel Gardonick was charged with spearheading the process of enacting the policies into law, which went into effect in December 2024.
On March 17, 2025, the New York LAI chapter was tremendously grateful and honored to welcome Commissioner Dan Garodnick and Annemarie Gray, Executive Director of Open New York, to discuss the reforms. The turnout, discussion, and energy in the room embodied LAI’s mission of holding meaningful dialogues and sharing information about important policy developments in land use.
The panelists provided a comprehensive overview of the City of Yes reforms, which will enable an additional 80,000 new units over the next 15 years. The conversation began with the key provisions of the new regulations, which include the reduction of off-street parking mandates, the allowance of accessory dwelling units (ADUs) in single-family-home neighborhoods, zoning changes to expedite the conversion of offices to residential use, and the legalizing of 2 to 4 stories of housing above businesses in low-density neighborhoods.
The discussion then turned to the intricate process involved in passing such a large and detailed bill. The City Planning Commissioner stressed the importance of clear and concise communication. Before joining the Planning Commission, Mr. Garodnick had been a member of the City Council for 12 years. His experiences there taught him that planning officials should not simply assume that other stakeholders are aware of planning terminology and specific zoning codes. The Commissioner highlighted that no matter how well-researched and well-designed a proposal is, it must be translated into clear, accessible language to gain broad support. To build trust, his team created single-page summaries to bring to community meetings. As the Commissioner stressed, “If I don’t understand something, I fundamentally cannot trust it.”
LAI members and guests participated in the conversation by raising important concerns. Member Michael Lappin expressed his sentiment—echoed by others—that to rapidly increase housing supply, the City needs to find ways to speed up the permitting process, which would reduce financing costs and uncertainty in development. New LAI member Solly Angel asked about what the City can do to foster regional planning, including upzoning in the suburban counties surrounding New York. The Commissioner agreed New York State needs to play a greater role in the planning process to encourage more transit-oriented development along the commuter rail lines. The Commissioner also discussed the role of the New York City Charter Revision Commission, which is reviewing the current charter and considering changes to make building housing easier.
The City of Yes for Housing Opportunity represents the first step in a long process of enabling more housing in the Big Apple, and thanks to the efforts of the Planning Commissioner the future of housing looks more hopeful than in a long time.
Left: Annemarie Gray, Executive Director of Open New York. Middle: New York City Planning Commissioner, Daniel Garodnick. Right: Jason Barr, LAI New York Chapter President. Far back: Scott Bloom, LAI New York member. Photo Credit: David Gregory
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