Recent state legislation and its impact on the industry

About 18 months ago, on Earth Day 2007, mayor Bloomberg announced PlaNYC. The goal of the plan was to face the challenges that are critical to New York's continued success. These challenges, said the mayor, include providing housing and open space for a population that will grow to nine million by 2030, rebuild our infrastructure that is more than a century old, revitalize the quality of our air, water and land and address the new threat that we face and its potentially severe implications: global climate change. PlaNYC, or as it is also called Plan 2030, presented 127 new initiatives that would strengthen our economy, public health and quality of life, making for a greener, greater New York. Though one initiative in the plan-congestion pricing-dominated the news headlines for much of the last 18 months, there have been a number of other proposals that have been adopted or are being developed with broad support. These proposals will advance the goals of the plan and have a direct impact on residential development in New York. In Albany this year, the governor signed into law the "Green Roof Tax Abatement." This proposal passed by the legislature provides a one-year tax abatement for the construction of a "green roof" on a multifamily building, a single-family home, or a commercial/industrial building. The amount of the abatement would be $4.50 per s/f of green roof, limited to the lesser of $100,000 or the building's tax liability for the year in which the abatement is taken. REBNY strongly supported this incentive to promote environmentally beneficial construction. The program sunsets in March 2013, we hope that its success will lead to its renewal. A cornerstone of PlaNYC is the planting of one million trees. This is a long-term goal that will improve air quality, will increase street tree canopy, will manage better storm water runoff and produce other environmental benefits. To attain this goal the city has adopted a text amendment to the Zoning Resolution that mandates for new construction, major enlargements and certain conversions street tree planting in all zoning districts, and a requirement for a planting strip between the sidewalk and curb in lower density residential districts. The site owner would be responsible for planting the required street trees after which maintenance would be the responsibility of the Department of Parks and Recreation (DPR). In the event that certain site constraints or conflicts with existing infrastructure could preclude tree planting, the city would accept an off-site location selected by DPR that is within the same community board or a half-mile from the site. As part of the public approval process, REBNY was able to have the city acknowledge that difficulties or delays in site selection would have an impact on construction. The city added provisions that address this problem: a time limit of 30 days from the time a contractor requests an available off-site planting location from DPR and the time DPR provides this location. If a location cannot be identified during this period, the tree requirement would be waived. Another alternative is that an owner may make a payment in lieu of planting an off-site tree. The payment-in-lieu option would also be available for the planting of on-site trees, when planting would otherwise occur out of season. Another proposal being developed by the Department of City Planning would require space for bicycle parking inside new buildings. According to the Office for Long-term Planning and Sustainability that is responsible for the implementation of PlaNYC, New Yorkers identify the lack of secure parking as the main reason for not traveling to work by bicycle. The city thinks that more indoor bike parking would alleviate modestly crowding on the roads and subway and promote the quality of life goals of the plan. In response to this proposal, we surveyed our members-builders and architects-about the desirability of this space in new buildings. According to our members, most new developments have considered incorporating bike parking, especially if they were seeking LEED Green Building Certification. Though the LEED requirement would permit outdoor bike parking, it would also require that the building provide showers. This feature has been a deterrent in many cases to complying with LEED. A number of new buildings, however, have voluntarily provided bike parking. In these cases, we learned that the demand for parking was much greater in residential buildings than commercial buildings. Also, they thought that the demand was greater in Manhattan residential buildings than buildings outside Manhattan. However, it was unclear if the bikes parked in the residential buildings were regularly used for commuting or stored long-term and used only recreationally. In contrast, the utilization of the spaces in the office buildings was for workers commuting to work. We have conveyed our findings to the city and have urged them to keep the number of spaces reasonably related to the demand found by our survey; to deduct the bike parking space from the allowable floor area; to permit building owners to restrict the hours of operation for this space; to clarify what types of buildings it applies to and; to provide a means to make modifications to the number of required spaces depending on the circumstances of the building. In numerous and significant ways PlaNYC is being implemented. We have supported the goals of the plan and will continue to encourage the city to refine their initiatives to make them workable for our industry and beneficial to all New Yorkers. Steven Spinola is the president of the Real Estate Board of New York, New York, N.Y.