Will Jobs and Real Affordable Housing Be Reviewed?

Ten years into New Rochelle’s downtown redevelopment, City Council voted December 9 to “reexamine and update” the Downtown Overlay Zone (DOZ) with an eye toward holding a public hearing in March 2026 and adopting changes in May.

“New Rochelle has facilitated construction of more than 4,500 new housing units, with approximately 6,500 additional units in the pipeline,” since adoption of the 2015 DOZ, according to the Environmental Assessment document Council approved to begin the process of amending the DOZ.

“These results,” according to the document, “together with associated community benefits … demonstrate that the DOZ’s residential program is functioning as intended. … Accordingly, the City is proposing to rebalance the DOZ program by increasing the residential development potential (+2,800 units).” 

Key to the city’s success in attracting billions of dollars of investment in the downtown is the Industrial Development Agency (IDA). Since 2015 the IDA has given out hundreds of millions of upfront tax breaks (sales and mortgage recording tax exemptions) and future property tax breaks through the Payment In Lieu of Taxes (PILOT) program that stretch out for 20 to 40 years. The School budget is impacted most, as 67% of the tax revenue goes to the schools, 22% goes to the City and 11% goes to the County.

The purpose of the NRIDA is “to serve as an economic development tool … to offer economic incentives to New Rochelle businesses. … to create and retain quality employment opportunities and to strengthen the local tax base.” By every measure, the City and the IDA have failed to deliver on the promise of good, family supporting jobs from the public’s investment in tax breaks, public land, and quality of life and in downtown redevelopment.

In New York, IDAs are governed by State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli and are required to report all financial and active project data to his office. To measure the NR IDA’s performance in creating jobs when compared to others in the region, New RoAR News looked at job creation data for 2021, 2022, and 2023, the most recent data on the Comptroller’s website. From 2021-2023, New Rochelle taxpayers paid almost $1.5 million for every job created by the NR IDA. By comparison, the average cost for every job created by the Mid-Hudson Region IDAs was $5,210.

To make matters even worse, the quality of the meager number of jobs created by the downtown redevelopment leaves much to be desired. The latest data from the City’s job placement program, the First Source Referral Center, shows an average hourly wage of $20.04 for New Rochelle residents placed into jobs through the center. This wage is not enough to move someone out of poverty. 

According to the Yale University Living Wage Calculator, a living wage in Westchester County is $32.60/hr. for a single person and $55.60/hr. for a single adult with one child. 

After residents demanded the city hold developers more accountable for creating good, family supporting jobs and more affordable housing, the Mayor and City Council appointed a union representative to the IDA in 2024. 

The seven-member IDA is appointed by the City Council to three-year, staggered terms. The terms of three current members expire at the end of February 2026.  Two of the three members have already served two terms on the IDA. Community and labor activists continue to advocate for the Mayor and City Council to fulfill a commitment to appoint labor, affordable housing and community advocates to the IDA to hold developers more accountable for building more truly affordable housing while creating good, family supporting jobs in exchange for the tens of millions of dollars in tax breaks they receive. 

Ultimately, the success of the Council’s reexamination and updating of the DOZ to address residents’ concerns about the downtown development, will require policy changes, specifically in the employment and housing arenas.