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Lago Calls on Industry to Counter Anti-Development Bias
Noting that “anti-development sentiment” in New York City is the highest she can remember in a public service career spanning four decades, City Planning Chair Marisa Lago called on the commercial real estate industry to help counter the misconceptions behind this sentiment.
“There’s a myth that if we don’t build, we will somehow become more affordable,” Lago told a Real Estate Board of New York audience at a breakfast honoring commercial management leaders. “The opposite is true.”
One driver behind the anti-development feeling, which came to the fore recently with the political opposition to Amazon’s plans for building a headquarters campus in Long Island City, is the sustained level of growth and success the city has experienced since the 2008 financial crisis. New York, Lago noted, is the only old-line industrial and manufacturing center that has grown back to its former size.
Nonetheless, she noted that there are legitimate concerns commingled with the misconceptions. One of these is the fear that the development resulting from up-zoning will price current residents and businesses out of the neighborhood. But, Lago noted that it’s a myth that up-zonings occur only in low-income areas.
In fact, Lago noted that outside of Manhattan, many parts of the boroughs are still stuck in 1961-era zoning. And within Manhattan, the increasingly upscale SoHo/NoHo area is also saddled with zoning restrictions that date from 1971. Accordingly, City Planning is seeking community input on a possible rezoning of the area.
Lago cited LIC and Downtown Brooklyn as two success stories of rezoning. In Downtown Brooklyn, for example, the student population of higher learning institutions is 63,000, a number greater than that of Cambridge, MA.
“These students will soon be looking for jobs,” Lago said. “And we want them to stay in New York.”
As for LIC, she said, “Amazon or no Amazon, Long Island City remains primed to take off.”
For comments, questions or concerns, please contact Paul Bubny
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