By the New RoAR News Editorial Board

On April 14th the City Council will hold a public hearing on proposed amendments to the Downtown Overlay Zone (DOZ).  We urge Council to use this opportunity to codify the expectations of the community as it relates to careers, local hires, green space, home ownership and truly affordable rents.   Unlike the previous administration, this Council should move from simply hoping for the best from developers to demanding a return on the taxpayers’ investments. 

Since its inception in 2015, the Form-Based Overlay Zones have proven to be a well documented boon to developers and new members of our community fleeing the high rental market of NYC.  In that same time period, however, for homeowners, those who are rent-burdened, local union trades members, seniors on a fixed income, and the 10% of our neighbors living in poverty, the much-heralded success of development has not matched the reality.  

Homeowners have not seen a decrease in City taxes, working class families are still rent-burdened, seniors on fixed incomes are still struggling to remain in the community, and those who qualify for subsidized housing have fewer options than ever before.   

It must be noted that our current mayor and city council members, with one notable exception, did not vote for the overlay zoning structure and in fact have called for a moratorium based on what they have heard from various members of the community.  Now is the time for Council to work alongside corporate counsel to make sure that the various goals of the promised but never codified community benefits agreement are firmly enshrined in the overlay zone code.  

The Summary Presentation of the 392 page 2026 Amendment to the New Rochelle Downtown Overlay Zone speaks to updates to theoretical development models as well as lessons learned.  Yet the projections for jobs and job creation mirror the theoretical model used in 2015, and there seems to be no lesson learned about the anemic level of local hire and full-time family-supporting job creation.  

What is missing are required labor standards based on a rigorous review of job creation over the past 10 years and an outline of the penalties, including clawbacks for developers that do not meet the de minimis standards for job creation and local hire.  In other words, Council should add firm requirements, third party rigorous compliance oversight and enforcement to the 2017 Economic Opportunity Policy and NonDiscrimination Policy.  

We applaud the amendment that requires any Community Benefits Bonuses generated in DOZ 8 to stay in DOZ 8.   However, before receiving “credit” for providing affordable units, developers should be required to outline all non-negotiable add-ons that are being piled onto renters who win the lottery for “affordable units”.  In many instances, the additional cost for such things as shared water use, excess garbage fees, amenities fees, and parking bring “affordable” rents to market rate pricing.

The price that developers pay into the Community Benefits Bonus Fund should be reported quarterly to the public and City Council.  This reporting should be a statutory requirement.  Those funds should also be a clearly identifiable line item in the City’s budget with oversight by the City Council and administered by the City Manager.   Leaving these funds within the Department of Development is not best practice and in the case of the Community Benefit bonus funds creates an inherent conflict of interest. 

Area Median Income (AMI) percentage cited for developers based on Housing and Urban Development (HUD) guidelines should also include the AMI of the census tract in any presentation on affordable units.  The New Rochelle community deserves to know the gap between what is mandated by HUD and what is actually helpful to our community.  How can the issue of true affordability be addressed if the gap is not clearly defined?  How can incentives be put in place for developers if we don’t start by looking at local AMI and challenging developers to find a way to provide rents without mandatory add-ons that will address the needs of our economically vulnerable citizens? 

We commend the City Manager for making quality of life his signature priority.  We urge him to work with City staff to address issues that persist in historically neglected and under-resourced areas, especially those in Council District 3 that are part of the expanded Downtown Overlay Zone.   The immediate implementation of the much-needed pedestrian safety tool of four-way signal stops at the intersections of Lincoln Avenue with Memorial Highway and North Avenue intersections should be a priority.  Other quality of life issues such as restricting 24 hours stores in targeted areas, improving the limited access to healthy food and quality supermarket options, focused efforts to control the explosion of the deer population in residential neighborhoods, and the intentional investments in communities impacted by decades of neglect and dis-investment are a few of the ways in which the expansion of the Downtown Overlay Zone can have a meaningful positive impact on the quality of life for the residents of Council District 3. 

As the New Rochelle skyline changes and we read glowing reports of the success of our housing development, there has been a severe disconnect between what long-time residents have experienced and what we are told has been achieved.  This gaslighting does not serve us well.  

We urge council to meet the moment and recenter development around the urgent community need for local hire, pathways to union jobs, housing that is no more than 30% of a family’s income, and transparency and input as to where the millions of dollars being collected from developers are being used.  

In the past two years, Council has indicated its intention to do all of these things.  We urge Council now to apply the full powers of both the city code and administrative rules to make your intentions crystal clear that a strong New Rochelle requires affordable, stable, and sustainable housing and the growth of family-supporting jobs.