Faith Based Affordable Housing Bill in NYS Would Override Landmark and Zoning Protections

From Andrew Berman at Greenwich Village Preservation: Troubling State Bill Overriding Landmark and Zoning Protections Reemerges, Requiring Sharp Pushback

This new State bill would override landmarks and zoning regulations to allow otherwise prohibited construction on the site of religious properties.

The so-called “Faith-Based Affordable Housing Act” has reemerged in Albany with a big push to pass the bill that would for the first time have the state undermine and circumvent landmarks and local zoning protections. Village Preservation has been working with a coalition of preservation organizations from across the state to fight the bill, which resulted in some concessions last session and helped keep the bill from getting a vote. But the anti-landmarking, anti-zoning-protections advocates who are behind the bill have renewed their push for its adoption this session.  We met with the bill’s main sponsor, State Senator Andrew Gounardes of Brooklyn, to seek common ground and see if the bill can be amended to address our concerns while still serving its purported purpose of helping faith-based property owners and facilitating the creation of affordable housing. The State Senator refused to budge on a single point. We have therefore again called upon local State Senators Brad Hoylman-Sigal and Brian Kavanagh, who represent our neighborhoods of Greenwich Village, the East Village, and NoHo and are co-sponsors of the legislation, to remove their names from the bill unless it is amended to address the concerns groups from across the state have shared. Passage of this bill would not only allow construction on landmarked sites in contravention of local landmark and zoning regulations, but set a dangerous precedent for the dismantling of these measures which protect history and neighborhood character.