Building for Growth: A Development Strategy for New York City's Long-Term Prosperity

Finding the Solutions

In addition to the immediate needs of rebuilding and repairing Lower Manhattan and achieving recovery from the recession, New York City needs to: frame a vision and a program for future growth; formulate a new slate of economic development strategies, processes and programs; and, provide the public sector infrastructure that will stimulate and accommodate private sector investment.

Reformulate the City’s Economic Development Strategies and Programs
Of particular importance will be a City strategy to:

• reform zoning policies and land-use regulations;
• establish a ‘one-stop shopping’ process to consolidate economic development policy, programs, investment and business services;
• increase public capital investment in site acquisition and assemblage and in basic preparatory infrastructure, to attract private sector development.

Formulate A Vision and Strategy for the Development of Major Vacant Sites
There is a critical need for a new vision and strategy for development of existing large tracts of land that have either been abandoned or serve as rail storage yards, (e.g. Manhattan’s West Side Yards, Sunnyside Yards in Queens, or Oak Point Yards in the Bronx) as well as large tracts of dilapidated land in Downtown Jamaica and Downtown Brooklyn, or in the outer stretches of Atlantic Avenue and East New York. These sites, together with Governor’s Island, offer potential for large-scale, multiple-use development.

• Provide the flexibility of land use policy and zoning regulations to accommodate development of smaller sites throughout the City’s five boroughs, for new housing, or for flexible live-work zoning that would accommodate work spaces for high technology and artisan ventures with living quarters and small scale commercial uses.

Formulate Strategies and Programs for Developing the Waterfront
The vast stretches of the New York City waterfront surrounding Manhattan and, particularly, the inner waterfront areas of Brooklyn and Queens that have remained fallow and undeveloped represent a major opportunity for investment and development.

Not only has development proven successful along the New Jersey side of the Hudson River, but other major seaport and riverfront cities across North America and in Europe have similarly proceeded with bold, imaginative and successful redevelopment of
their waterfronts. Clearly, the waterfront perimeter remains one of New York City’s great potential assets.

There are multiple challenges to:

• clear sites that are at best dilapidated and at worst contaminated with toxic waste;
• change zoning restrictions;
• settle issues of riparian rights and coordinate the varying environmental policies of the City, State and Federal governments;
• initiate detailed planning and preparation of land for public-private mixed use development along prime stretches of the East River waterfront in Brooklyn and Queens, on Manhattan’s lower East Side waterfront, and along the prime blocks of Midtown Manhattan’s Hudson River waterfront;
• plan and protect necessary stretches of waterfront in Brooklyn,Queens and the Bronx for industrial and shipping functions;
• plan for major upgrading in capacity and quality of recreational stretches of waterfront in all five boroughs.
  
  Most likely, the basic preparation of waterfront sites will require public investment. But above all, the City’s waterfront land use and development policy needs firm vision, leadership and guidance.

Formulate Strategies and Programs for Increasing the Supply of Private and Public Housing
Despite the current recession in the City’s economy, all evidence still points to a continuing demand for additional housing in New York City, for all income levels, and in all boroughs. The need is particularly acute for public planning and programs to encourage construction of middle-and lower income housing.

New programs to stimulate construction could include:

• public sector investment to improve and increase the supply of vacant land as encouragement for private development;
• public sector land preparation and purchase grant mechanisms to bolster housing programsof charitable and community groups;
• public sector leadership, possibly with the
  assistance of public sector unions, to establish investment pools for public sector housing;
• a new type of ownership program for middle income housing, similar to the successful Mitchell- Lama co-op and rental programs of earlier decades;
• tax abatement for private sector housing in designated development zones.
  If no help is forthcoming from Federal or State agencies, the public sector role would obviously fall to New York City government to find scarce public capital for basic infrastructure and land preparation, as well as to mobilize institutional and philanthropic funds for investment in housing. The City would benefit, however, from the current climate of low interest rates that will help ease construction costs, and from the economic stimulation of a large housing construction program.

Provide for Added Transportation Capacity
Despite the two recent decades of economic and population growth, the last major addition to transportation in New York City was the completion of the Verrazano Narrows Bridge in 1964. Further growth in the City’s economy and population base will be seriously hampered without major investment in new transportation capacity, in public subway, commuter rail, and bus systems, and in improved highway and street capacity for passenger vehicles and goods movement.

In addition to providing needed transportation access to Lower Manhattan during the years while the subway and PATH systems destroyed at the World Trade Center site are being repaired or replaced, over the longer term, expansion of mass transit clearly must
be directed to underserved areas of Manhattan’s East and West sides and congested areas of Brooklyn and Queens.

Preliminary planning and financial estimates need to be completed and reviewed for such proposed additions as the Second Avenue Subway, extension of the #7 subway line to Manhattan’s West Side, and for commuter rail access to Lower Manhattan. These proposals also need to be weighed against other potential long-term expansions of mass
transit within, and to, the five boroughs.

Provision of new water transportation services has the potential for dramatically changing land use and furthering development along the Brooklyn and Queens waterfront. Vehicular congestion on access routes to, throughout and within the City’s five boroughs remains a particular challenge and will require substantial investment to:

• maintain and repair the City’s vast network of streets and bridges;
• improve the condition of major thoroughfares;
• formulate pricing strategies that would curb or shift peak hour usage;
• plan and finance new bridge and tunnel capacity.

Support New York City’s Cultural, Higher Education, and Medical Research Institutions
New York City’s preeminent arts and cultural facilities, together with great medical and educational facilities, are major contributors to the City’s economy and fundamental to its quality of life. Additional investment in and expansion of these facilities is an important component of the City’s long-term development strategy.

A development strategy, including zoning changes where necessary, is vital to maintain and advance New York City’s comparative strength in its:

• arts and cultural facilities;
• great teaching hospitals and medical and biomedical research facilities;
• public and private higher educational complexes, and student housing.

Assure Additional Electricity Generation in New York City
Years of growth and increased electricity usage by both businesses and residents during New York City’s economic boom of the 1990’s occurred without any significant increase in the City’s electrical generating capacity. Official estimates call for between 2,000-3,000 MW of new capacity by 2006 to accommodate further growth and ongoing usage increases, to replace aging, environmentally problematic plants, and to assure sufficient capacity to stabilize energy costs.

In the recently deregulated electricity market in New York State, construction of new facilities rests with private companies, who must seek State and Federal approvals for plant siting.

New York City’s Development Needs are also Development Opportunities
This development strategy for New York City is resource-conserving in its focus on the urban
structure, and will produce major benefits in both the short-term and long-term for the City’s economy, its residents, and businesses:

• The planning and construction phases of development projects will result in substantial short-term job creation.
• Continued new investment in commercial, office, housing, transportation, institutional and neighborhood development will yield long-term
  benefits in permanent jobs, higher incomes, and increased productivity.
• These investments will provide increased capacity to accommodate future growth in New York City’s economy and population as well as improve the quality of life for its citizens and workforce.