Matching Words and Deeds? How Transit-oriented are the Bloomberg-era Rezonings in New York City

This article describes how Mayor Bloomberg’s administration has publicly advocated that new residential development should be targeted to neighborhoods that are well served by public transit. The administration argues that such a pattern of development offers New York City the best hope for accommodating growth while minimizing the impact that growth will have on traffic congestion, energy use and pollution. However, the implementation of the City’s land use goals is a complicated balancing act that often involves conflicting influences. Because of the realities of coordinating transit and other infrastructure and the political pressures of local communities wanting to protect their neighborhoods from what they perceive as excessive growth, the administration’s stated land use goals might not be reflected in its actual decisions. This paper provides a first look at the net impact of the unprecedented rezoning activity that was initiated by New York City’s Department of City Planning since 2003. Much of the new capacity has been added in zoning districts that permit other uses, which raises the possibility that residential uses will be at least partly crowded out by commercial or industrial development. Furthermore, the model for measuring capacity does not acknowledge the many land use regulations in the Zoning Resolution that likely limit development. A better understanding of these regulations, such as minimum parking requirements, height limits and open space requirements, may allow for more accurately estimating the usable capacity that zoning changes add or remove. Finally, several non-zoning factors that are likely to help determine whether residential capacity will yield new residential units in areas near transit. In future work, the authors will investigate the relationship between added capacity and other factors, including market demand, available subsidies, infrastructure other than transit, and the capacity of existing transit.

• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/isbn/9781849801676
• Corporate Authors:

  Edward Elgar Publishers

  William Pratt House, 9 Dewey Court
  Northampton, MA  United States  01060-3815
• Authors:
  • McDonnell, Simon
  • Madar, Josiah
  • Been, Vicki
• Publication Date: 2011

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Print
• Features: Maps; References; Tables;
• Pagination: pp 170-185
• Monograph Title: Transportation and Economic Development Challenges (Nectar Series on Transportation and Communications Research

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Economic growth; Land use planning; Open space control; Parking; Pollution; Public transit; Traffic congestion; Zoning
• Geographic Terms: New York (New York)
• Subject Areas: Planning and Forecasting; Public Transportation; I72: Traffic and Transport Planning;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01450334
• Record Type: Publication
• ISBN: 9781849801676
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Oct 26 2012 8:55AM