Spring 2007 Land Use and Housing Breakfast Series

Our Spring 2007 Breakfast Series, Thinking Outside the Block and Lot, explored strategies for creating affordable housing on underutilized land. 

The fact that the City is running out of buildable land has been widely discussed, and the conversation has sparked some creative ideas about how to address the problem.  But if the City is going to build enough units of affordable housing to meet the production goals set out in the Mayor’s ambitious 10-year housing plan, make up for the loss of affordable units we’ve seen in recent years and accommodate new population growth, even more innovative strategies will be required. The City, real estate industry and affordable housing community will have to move beyond looking at brownfields or empty railyards, and develop new ways to “create” land.  Our April breakfast explored creative strategies for building affordable housing on publicly-owned, underutilized FAR.  In May, we examined how non-profits are partnering with affordable housing providers to develop un-used FAR on property they own.

April 4th Speakers

• Rohit Aggarwala, Director, Mayor’s Office of Long-Term Sustainability and Planning
• Doug Apple, General Manager, New York City Housing Authority
• Martin Dunn, President, Dunn Development
• Holly Leicht, Associate Commissioner, New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development
• Scott Stringer, Manhattan Borough President

May 2nd Speakers

• Kirk Goodrich, Vice President, Enterprise Community Investment
• James Kuhn, President, Newmark Knight Frank
• John Tynan, Director of Housing, Brooklyn Catholic Charities
• Michelle de la Uz, Executive Director, Fifth Avenue Committee