Amendment of 421-a Bill Could Save City Millions
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A carve-out for the Atlantic Yards project in a housing tax break bill could be removed during a special legislative session, as legislators are pushing to block what has been called a giant taxpayer giveaway.
Last month, the Legislature approved a renewed residential tax break bill, known as 421-a, which contained expanded provisions for “affordable” housing. However the deal-making involved in crafting the bill, which has yet to be sent to Governor Spitzer for his signature, resulted in facets that angered advocates of both housing and development. The mayor has called for a veto of the bill should it not be amended, as has the City Council speaker, Christine Quinn.
The chief focus of criticisms of the bill is an exemption crafted for Brooklyn’s $4 billion Atlantic Yards project, which Mayor Bloomberg has said could cost the city upwards of $300 million.
The lead architect of the bill, Assemblyman Vito Lopez, said all parties are talking, including developer Forest City Ratner, and that there seems to be support for at least scaling back the Atlantic Yards provision.
“Right now there’s some dialogue about changing that, between Ratner and the city, and that could be an amendment of its own,” Mr. Lopez said.
The city is said to be pressing for even larger changes, including an alteration to the area in which developers must build affordable housing to qualify for the tax break.
For Mr. Lopez, that would be too much of a modification, one he will not entertain, he said.
“At risk here is eliminating the 421-a program,” Mr. Lopez added, “and not having a program which will put thousands of affordable housing units at risk.”
In an interview last week, the president of the Real Estate Board of New York, Steven Spinola, did not rule out scaling back the Atlantic Yards exemption, though he said Forest City Ratner should be given greater flexibility.
A spokesman for the city’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development, Neill Coleman, said the city hopes to get a number of provisions of the bill amended, ideally in a special legislative session this summer.
The city is also concerned with a lack of a provision for government-subsidized middle-class housing, which would affect its Queens West project in Long Island City, a change Mr. Lopez is resisting.
