Two State bills—Senate Bill 5469 and Assembly Bill 7807—proposed to lift the Multiple Dwelling Law’s (MDL) cap on residential FAR for buildings with 6 or more elevators. Currently, the cap is at 12; this means that no Residential zoning districts in New York State—including New York City—can have an FAR greater than 12.  If these bills were approved, residential districts would have been able to be rezoned to have an FAR greater than 12, and new residential buildings with 6 or more elevators in these districts would have been able to build to the maximum envelope permitted by Sky Exposure Plane or Quality Housing regulations without being limited by FAR. 

This legislation was requested by the New York City Department of City Planning, most likely as a new strategy for facilitating affordable housing development, as well as furthering the Mayor’s goal of preserving or creating 200,000 new affordable housing units within 10 years.  Removing the MDL cap would have allowed for increased FAR only if areas were rezoned to allow for greater FAR.  These upzonings would have triggered Mandatory Affordable Housing requirements for new buildings in these areas.  These new buildings would have been required to have a certain percentage of affordable units, and those large towers would have led to more affordable units. 

In addition to allowing for more affordable housing, removing this cap would have had an even more noticeable effect of allowing for tall, out-of-context residential towers and was thus opposed by stakeholders such as the New York Landmarks Conservancy and the Municipal Art Society of New York.  Because of the substantial pressure from advocacy groups, the Assembly Housing Chairman blocked the legislation this session and the bills will not be reconsidered until their impact is analyzed further.