The governor, mayor and City Council speaker this past week further detailed their visions for how the housing challenge must be tackled.

They’re broadly aligned on the necessity of new construction.

“No, every block must be open to building housing in the city,” Mayor Eric Adams said Wednesday at an Association for a Better New York gathering.

“So, the jobs are there, the housing is not,” Gov. Kathy Hochul said, speaking before Mayor Adams.

What You Need To Know

  • The mayor and governor have set ambitious housing creation goals

  • But they'll need legislative changes to hit those targets

  • City-level rules also are poised for amendment to ease building

And while each may seek to emphasize a different priority — Speaker Adrienne Adams saying Thursday that building “must be done fairly and responsibly” — there are areas where their separate blueprints overlap.

This common ground may preview the legislative and other changes that can be realized first to smooth the path to development.

The New New York Panel action plan jointly presented Wednesday by Hochul and the mayor, as an example, calls for amending state law to ease office-to-residential conversions.

The housing opportunity portion of Adams’ “City of Yes” plan from June similarly calls for expanding city zoning rules to convert obsolete office or loft buildings into housing, including supportive housing.

“They will allow us to dramatically transform our city and our economy,” Mayor Adams said in June of his proposals.

The New New York plan also recommends amending state law to remove the 12 FAR, or floor area ratio, cap on residential buildings.

The council speaker’s housing agenda, unveiled Thursday, also calls for the repeal to create affordable housing.

“We certainly do take a look at adjusting FAR as we take a look at adjusting the AMI,” she said then.

Between the mayor and speaker, there’s further agreement on reducing parking to increase affordability, something highlighted in the speaker’s planning and land use toolkit and in the mayor’s “City of Yes” vision as a requirement that can be nixed.

One crucial tool in the New New York plan is a replacement for the 421-a tax incentive that facilitated building in the last decade, but there may not be appetite for it among state lawmakers.