The Inside View

By Molly Gordy

Carl Weisbrod has been the director of the New York City Department of City Planning and chairman of the Planning Commission since 2014. But he's no stranger to New York. Upon his appointment by Mayor Bill de Blasio, he said, "I love this city. I've spent my entire career revitalizing its neighborhoods and making sure New Yorkers were the ones who benefited from good growth in their communities." His 40 years in city government include serving as founding president of the NYC Economic Development Corporation and the NYC Loft Board, spearheading the city's efforts to revitalize Times Square, and guiding the post-9/11 recovery of Lower Manhattan.

Photo of Carl Weisbrod by Michael Appleton, New York Times.

You have a unique historical perspective, having served under five mayors. How has New York City's approach to urban planning evolved since you first entered public service?

When I started in the late 1960s and early 1970s, the city was in a most distressing state, and people were voting with their feet; people were leaving in large numbers and large portions of the city were abandoned. Since then we have seen a reversal, in large part due to good fiscal management by the city over many decades, a reduction in crime, and a world that changed so that cities became much more attractive to people.

From 1975 to 1985 the city was largely in a reactive mode. There was a fiscal crisis. The city was fighting drug and crime epidemics without economic resources, and losing population. So there was a policy of planned shrinkage. Fortunately it was not implemented to a great extent.

From 1985 to 1990 the city was growing, and Mayor Ed Koch implemented a very forward-looking housing plan to rehabilitate abandoned buildings to increase housing stock, and began addressing years of deferred maintenance to infrastructure.

During the 1990s there was a major recession, and the concern was, "How do we retain our economic base, how do we protect our financial institutions and avoid them decamping to the suburbs or elsewhere?" And for the most part we did keep them here.

During Bloomberg's three terms the preoccupation was of course recovery from 9/11, but also, how we begin to deal with a growing city, one that is increasingly self-confident. My predecessor as planning commissioner, Amanda Burden, FAICP, focused on improving quality of life at the street level, on improving neighborhoods, on making the city more physically appealing, comfortable, an attractive place to be.

That brings us to today. What are this administration's priorities?

We know that climate change and sea-level rise will reshape New York City's waterfront and lead to increased risks of flooding. We've mapped and analyzed flood risk and sea-level rise projections, and worked with communities in the most vulnerable areas of the floodplain on how to manage growth in areas that could face an uncertain future.

We believe fresh land-use policies in vulnerable areas and additional zoning changes will enable property owners to build in ways that limit damage from floods and reduce insurance costs, and also facilitate development that is both responsive to neighborhood character and aligned with the need for long-term adaptation. Getting it right requires extensive outreach, and we are committed to [that].

In some ways [these are] the best of times in the city: Population is at an all-time high, jobs are at an all-time high, and crime is at an all-time low. That really creates housing challenges. We have almost 8.6 million people now, and we do not have enough housing for them, particularly affordable housing.

Two-thirds of city households rent, and the majority are rent burdened, in that they pay more than one-third of their household income on rent. The economy is booming, the 500,000 private-sector jobs added in the last five years equals almost half of the total private employment in Chicago — think about that! But too many of the new jobs — in restaurants, health care, and retail — are at the lower end of the income scale, and their growth is far outpacing the availability of housing.

A quarter of all families in homeless shelters today have at least one adult who's actually working, to give you an idea of the challenge.

How are you addressing this problem?

Mayor Bill de Blasio has initiated what is clearly the most ambitious housing policy in the country. We are investing more in affordable housing in New York City than the next 50 cities combined — $8.2 billion over the next 10 years, just in capital subsidies to support affordable housing construction. The goal is to build or preserve 200,000 units of affordable housing over 10 years. That's enough to house a half-million people.

At the same time, we're looking at places where we can use zoning to increase our capacity to build housing. We've identified seven neighborhoods in all five boroughs, and expect to do up to 15 neighborhoods.

We've also created a Mandatory Inclusionary Housing program that is by far the most rigorous in the country. This is the first affordable housing requirement in the city's history. We had a voluntary requirement — still do — in which a property developer could get a bonus if they provided additional affordable housing. Some owners took advantage of that, some didn't. But now any time we rezone a neighborhood to create more housing capacity, anyone who is building in that zoning district has to provide 20 to 30 percent — depending on how deep the affordability is — for affordable housing.

This is a much more holistic approach than the city has ever taken before. Other programs have offered developers the option of paying into a fund, or building off -site. With Mandatory Inclusionary Housing, we want the housing to be built on-site. Economic diversity is extremely important to us. We are still too segregated by income. The evidence is compelling that poor children who grow up in economically diverse neighborhoods tend to do better.

Are there other demographic forces in play, besides income?

Our proportion of elderly is growing — although at a slower rate than nationally — so we've vastly expanded the kinds of housing that can be built for seniors. Through a citywide zoning change, we've expanded the areas where nursing homes can be built, and for the first time will allow Continuing Care Retirement Facilities, which are very popular in other parts of the country. This will let a couple that has been married or living together for many years to age together in place, even though they're aging at different paces. It's a very big deal, and we have none of that in New York City. It's disgraceful.

We're also making it less expensive to build senior housing in most parts of the city that are near mass transit, by eliminating the parking space requirement.

New York City neighborhoods have a long tradition of resistance to large-scale development. How are you responding to that?

We have undergone a major change in emphasis, to focus on how to address planning holistically. Neighborhoods are suspicious of change because public investment hasn't always followed growth. It's the nature of land use that we have to lever the art of the possible and get the maximum we think feasible. But the city is much more than a physical shell. We are committed to not only improving the supply of affordable housing, but also the quality of life.

As we go into any neighborhood, we're looking at not only how do we rezone it, but what does a neighborhood need in all its components to function as a community?

It's not just housing, and it's not just the design, as important as those things are. It's also: How do we make sure the schools are right, that the open space is there, that the social services, that the health services are there?

We are approaching development in a broad-based way, making capital investments in that approach, and by engaging more with communities at the local level. We've created a $1 billion Neighborhood Development Fund that we can tap into for capital investments in the neighborhoods that are growing through our initiatives, with community input in how it will be spent.

How else are you ensuring adequate funding for your long-term plans?

Forty years ago, City Planning would work on the capital plan with the Office of Management and Budget; it was required by the City Charter. That was eliminated after the fiscal crisis. Now for the first time in 40 years, we have reengaged with OMB on capital spending.

As we look at how the city allocates its resources, we can take into account planning goals as well as financial goals. We can prepare for long-term changes in things like commuting patterns and job locations and sea-level rise. That marriage between budget and planning is a major, major advance that started with this administration.

It's an exciting time, a challenging time. There's certainly a lot of work still to be done.

Molly Gordy is senior writer and communications advisor at Sam Schwartz Consultants, a transportation planning firm.