In a 12-1 vote, The New York City Planning Commission approved Mayor de Blasio’s plan to rezone East New York. This will be the first of the many scheduled neighborhood rezoning initiatives as part of his affordable housing plan. The overall plan hopes to provide 200,000 affordable housing units throughout the city.
Residents, activists and community boards alike have been opposing the plan since conception, expecting the rezoning to cause an “eastward creep” of gentrification into the area, further rewarding the developers. Responding to concerns, de Blasios’s camp suggests that over the next two years the premier steps of the affordable housing should generate 1200 units that are 100% affordable.
Though the results were in favor of the plan, the one opposing vote was from Commissioner Michelle de la Uz. Uz noted, “While I don’t doubt the intentions of this administration, too many promises to communities have been broken in the past, and that leads to cynicism, anger, and antipathy that undermines our democracy and ultimately, the administration’s goals.”