Council Member Kayla Santosuosso (D-Bay Ridge) took to X last week to brag about securing what she dubbed “major benefits” — specifically, a commitment from the developer to build fewer units of housing (and fewer below-market-rate “affordable” units) plus 200 parking spaces, which is 170 more than city law requires.
So instead of 292 new units — with 88 priced below market rate — in the neighborhood, the negotiated building will have 273 units and 82 units with slightly better affordability levels.
Santosuosso declared victory for the neighborhood because the resulting units will be bigger, and more suitable for families, compared to the original proposal, which would have had more one bedroom apartments and less parking, according to a CPC presentation.
But Santosuosso’s celebration is misguided at best, according to experts, because the cost of building parking is typically so high that developers typically reduce the number of units — and raise each unit’s price — to compensate.
“The decision of increasing the parking requirements, and claiming that as a victory, is really contrary to our own research that shows that [increasing required parking] has ultimately a larger scale negative effect on the availability of housing and how affordable that housing is,” said Marcel Negret, director of land use at the Regional Plan Association, who authored a report on the effect of parking requirements on affordable housing.