On May 26, 2026, the Mamdani administration announced a comprehensive housing plan to facilitate increased housing production throughout the city. Block by Block: The Housing Plan for a New Era includes a variety of zoning and land use-related policy proposals focused on removing barriers to development and increasing public investments in housing production.
“Block by Block meets the housing crisis with the ambition and urgency that New Yorkers deserve,” Deputy Mayor for Housing and Planning Leila Bozorg said in a press release. “[T]his administration is using every tool at its disposal to meet the moment.”
The Plan states that the administration’s efforts are guided by three key values: leveraging planning reforms to create affordable housing through public and private zoning actions; increasing public-sector investments in housing; and protecting and strengthening tenants’ rights.
The Plan sets a goal of building 200,000 new affordable homes and preserving 200,000 existing affordable homes over the next decade. Proposals to support those goals include the recently announced SPEED reforms to reduce development timelines and a “Fair Housing Growth Strategy,” to be released later this year, that will set specific housing production targets for every neighborhood.
Proposals also include major land-use initiatives, such as exploring city-sponsored land use actions in the 12 community districts with the lowest rates of affordable housing production through the Affordable Housing Fast Track, once those districts are announced later this year. The administration will also look at additional neighborhood rezonings, such as the recently announced neighborhood rezoning plans for Brooklyn and the Bronx, and smaller-scale “micro-plans” in areas where larger neighborhood rezonings are not feasible.
On a citywide scale, the Plan calls for consideration of transit-oriented development initiatives, such as increases to the residential density permitted near transit, zoning changes in conjunction with transit improvements like the proposed Interborough Express and Bus Rapid Transit, and improvements to existing programs that incentivize developers to build elevators and other accessibility-related transit station improvements in exchange for floor area bonuses.
Other initiatives in the Plan that may aid private development include planned studies of construction innovations, Building Code reforms that would increase housing production and decrease costs while increasing construction safety, and the reintroduction of single-room occupancy units and buildings containing a mix of senior and standard housing. The Landmarks Preservation Commission will study opportunities to facilitate housing development in historic districts and to capitalize on the potential to more easily transfer development rights from some individual landmarks.
In addition to actions that could spark future development on privately-owned land, the Plan sets forth the administration’s intention to make use of publicly-owned land for housing development. The administration will partner with the State to advance a master plan for the Aqueduct Racetrack in South Ozone Park and to consider residential development at the NYC Health + Hospitals / Coler campus on Roosevelt Island. The administration will also continue to work with the federal government to explore the development of a new neighborhood built on platforms over Sunnyside Yards in Queens.
The Plan also recognizes opportunities to spur housing development on city-owned properties or by using city-owned development rights. Later this year, the city will begin the land use review process for the disposition of city-owned sites that cannot be developed individually due to small size or lack of street access, and for the disposition of unused development rights appurtenant to landmarked buildings or “right-sized” facilities such as schools built to meet specific needs. The administration will also analyze the city’s real estate portfolio to identify opportunities to co-locate housing with existing uses such as libraries and schools.
“At a moment when working people are being pushed out of the city they built, New York cannot afford half-measures or delays,” said Mayor Zohran Mamdani. “We are setting the most ambitious housing production and preservation targets in the city’s modern history – and backing them up with investments to match.”
In addition to the land use and zoning proposals discussed above, the Plan focuses on a broad range of housing-related initiatives, including efforts to lower building operating costs; ensuring fair wages for construction workers on city-financed projects through the Construction Justice Act; reinvigorating the New York City Housing Authority’s role as a developer; increasing opportunities for emerging and minority/woman owned development companies on city-financed projects; and protecting tenants’ and homeowners’ rights through proposals such as increased enforcement of housing regulations, deed theft prevention and support for the City Council’s proposed Community Opportunity to Purchase Act.
This summer, the administration will explore changes to the Mayor’s Management report that would provide progress updates on the goals of this comprehensive housing plan. We will continue to monitor the administration’s progress on the Block by Block initiatives.