City of Yes for Housing Opportunity: What Changed for NYC Property Owners and Developers

City of Yes for Housing Opportunity is a citywide amendment to the New York City Zoning Resolution. The City Council approved it in December 2024. It did not rezone any particular neighborhood. Instead, it changed the rules that apply inside existing zoning districts, so many sites can now build more, or build differently, than they could before.

If you looked at a site's zoning before December 2024, the answer may have changed.

The Universal Affordability Preference

The Universal Affordability Preference (UAP) gives a building extra floor area when that additional space is used for permanently affordable housing. The affordable homes must serve households earning an average of 60 percent of area median income.

In an R6A district, for example, the standard maximum residential floor area ratio is 3.0. With UAP, a building can reach 3.9.

UAP is not the same as Mandatory Inclusionary Housing. The difference is choice. If a site is in a mapped MIH area, it is subject to the MIH requirements. UAP is optional: an owner decides whether to opt in and take the extra floor area.

Parking

City of Yes divided the city into zones for residential parking:

• Inner Transit Zone: parking requirements for new housing were eliminated.
• Outer Transit Zone: parking requirements were significantly reduced, and smaller buildings can often waive them entirely.
• Beyond the Greater Transit Zone: requirements are generally unchanged.

For many sites, removing a parking requirement is worth more than any change in floor area. Structured parking is expensive, and on a narrow lot it can make a project unworkable.

Lower-density neighborhoods

Several changes target neighborhoods zoned for one- and two-family homes and other low-density districts:

• Qualifying residential sites: one of the biggest changes for low-density districts. In R1 through R5 districts, qualifying residential sites can use significantly more floor area than a standard lot. In R5, for example, the maximum residential FAR goes from 1.5 to 2.0, and in R4 from 1.0 to 1.5. Larger projects, above 50,000 square feet of residential floor area, must include permanently affordable housing, administered by HPD.
• Accessory dwelling units: homeowners can add a small unit, with limits. ADUs are not allowed on ground floors or basements in flood zones, and backyard units are generally limited to areas near transit.
• Town Center zoning: three to five stories of housing above ground-floor retail on commercial corridors in lower-density areas. The City Council removed it from one- and two-family districts.
• Transit-oriented development: three- to five-story apartment buildings on qualifying sites near transit, excluding the lowest-density R1 and R2 districts.
• Campus infill: new buildings on underused parts of large sites, such as church or apartment campuses, with limits on height and lot coverage.

Bulk changes in medium- and high-density districts

City of Yes also adjusted the shape of buildings. It created new R11 and R12 districts with maximum residential FARs of 15 and 18, raised some height limits, and reduced some yard and court requirements. These changes are technical, but they often decide whether a site can actually use all of its floor area.

Landmark development rights

City of Yes made it much easier for landmarks to sell unused development rights. Most transfers are now approved by certification of the City Planning Commission Chair, without ULURP. See our page on landmark development rights transfers for how that process works.

What this means for your site

City of Yes changed what many districts allow. That affects three decisions:

• Buying a site: the as-of-right yield may be higher than a pre-2025 analysis showed, especially with UAP and reduced parking.
• Planning a rezoning: the right district to request may be different now, because every district's rules changed.
• Selling or buying air rights: the amount of unused floor area on a lot may have changed.

If you have a site you have not looked at since City of Yes, it is worth a fresh zoning analysis. Email us at alexia@thelandlaw.com.

This post is general information about New York City zoning and is not legal advice for any specific property.