Queens is the future, but more than ever we need Albany’s help to make sure it happens.
State lawmakers are set to pack their bags and head back to their districts for the rest of 2023, and it increasingly seems like they won’t be taking any housing victories home with them. That’s a shame when you consider the affordability crisis and commercial vacancies and our struggles to house people only getting worse. Only the legislature can solve these problems, which is why it’s crucial they not leave Albany without taking meaningful action to build housing and spur economic development in Queens and every borough.
Lawmakers have two clear-cut solutions in front of them that will lead to tens of thousands of units. The first is to lift the floor-area ratio (FAR) cap and then to expand office-to-residential conversions with an incentive to encourage affordable housing. These are the lowest-hanging fruits in terms of housing solutions and have the backing of the Queens Chamber of Commerce and dozens of organizations that make up the 5 Borough Housing Movement. We have backed these proposals because the New Yorkers we represent want to see tangible solutions that start to create units.
The reality is that our housing policies don’t match today’s Queens. New York state passed the FAR cap in 1962, when Shea Stadium was still under construction, JFK Airport was still known as “Idlewild,” and the fabled Jamaica Macy’s was humming with shoppers. Queens is a different world today: the Mets are in their second home, JFK is a completely different airport and our population has grown by more than 600,000 people. Yet the FAR cap continues to limit how many apartments can be on the floor of our building.
And, no, the Unisphere won’t be cast in the shadow of skyscrapers in Sunnyside. Lifting the FAR cap does not mean an explosion of tall buildings, but rather a full assessment of what parts of New York City could be denser. Any impacted area would have to go…
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