Mayor Zohran Mamdani launched an internet tracker on Thursday mapping greater than 100 city-owned websites the place his administration says roughly 50,000 properties are deliberate in an effort to present New Yorkers a clearer view of town’s housing pipeline on public land.
The Land Stock Quick Observe, or LIFT, tracker brings collectively tasks throughout the 5 boroughs at varied phases of improvement, from websites which have been introduced however nonetheless want financing to developments transferring towards development. The administration mentioned the map might be up to date as tasks advance and new websites are added.
Nearly all of the tasks started beneath earlier mayoral administrations and stay unfinished. Deputy Mayor for Housing and Planning Leila Bozorg mentioned on July 30 that the Mamdani administration has introduced about six new websites since taking workplace and plans to situation requests for proposals (RFPs) for not less than 5 extra city-owned websites in every of the subsequent 4 years.
The administration shouldn’t be but naming the properties it expects to incorporate in these future RFPs. Bozorg mentioned officers want time to work with the businesses that management the land, have interaction surrounding communities, and put together the websites for public competitions. She added that pronouncing doable developments too early may contribute to actual property hypothesis.
The tracker web site attracts from town’s Public Pipeline Transparency Report, required beneath Native Legislation 125 of 2024, in addition to earlier public bulletins. Officers described it as the primary place the place New Yorkers can view town’s public-land housing pipeline on one map.
Not sufficient actual property to go round?
The undertaking additionally lays naked one of many predominant obstacles to constructing on metropolis property: There’s not a lot vacant land left.
The town owns or leases greater than 15,000 properties, protecting an space the administration says is roughly the scale of Brooklyn. However lower than 2% of that land is actually vacant, and officers say an excellent smaller share is appropriate for housing.
Greater than half of city-controlled land is devoted to parks and cultural makes use of, whereas roughly 38% helps energetic providers and infrastructure, together with faculties, hospitals, firehouses, workplaces, airports and upkeep services.
“We don’t have that many very kind of easy, clean-cut, vacant sites anymore to turn into housing,” Bozorg mentioned.
Which means town will more and more should construct housing alongside current public makes use of, together with libraries and social service facilities, or work with businesses to interchange parking and relocate operations.
The tracker consists of tasks combining housing with public services, in addition to developments on NYCHA campuses and vacant tons.
Deputy Mayor for Housing and Planning Leila Bozorg speaks with reporters aboard a double-decker bus within the Bronx throughout a tour of city-owned housing websites on July 30, 2026.Photograph through Mayor’s Workplace
Throughout a double-decker bus tour, metropolis officers highlighted three Bronx tasks as examples of these approaches.
Sol on Park, on NYCHA’s Morris Homes campus, is anticipated to create 229 “deeply affordable” senior flats for these with extraordinarily low family incomes. Eighty of the models might be reserved for seniors at the moment dwelling at Morris Homes, in keeping with the administration. Officers mentioned the undertaking can be a part of Mamdani’s effort to broaden NYCHA’s function in housing improvement.
A second undertaking close to Claremont Homes is slated to supply 40 inexpensive homeownership models. A neighborhood land belief would retain possession of the land beneath the event, permitting consumers to construct a restricted quantity of fairness whereas maintaining the properties inexpensive for future purchasers.
The town first dedicated to housing at that web site as a part of the 2018 Jerome Avenue rezoning. Housing Preservation and Growth Commissioner Dina Levy mentioned the undertaking was slowed after its RFP was launched shortly earlier than the COVID-19 pandemic and later needed to transfer by a rezoning.
Mamdani famous that Bronx Borough President Vanessa Gibson helped safe the undertaking whereas serving within the Metropolis Council, however the web site has but to be developed eight years later.
The Grand Concourse Library undertaking would take a distinct method, putting 113 inexpensive flats above a brand new 17,500-square-foot library. Comparable library and housing tasks are transferring ahead on the Bloomingdale Library in Manhattan and the New Utrecht Library in Brooklyn.
Mamdani seems to be to chop crimson tape on housing development
The administration says additionally it is making an attempt to shorten the time between an preliminary announcement and development.
Bozorg mentioned reforms to the environmental evaluation course of may scale back one pre-certification timeline from two years to 6 months, whereas different modifications may shave an extra six to 18 months from the method, relying on the undertaking.
These efforts embody town’s new Expedited Land Use Assessment Process and the Neighborhood Builders Quick Observe, which makes use of a prequalified group of nonprofit and minority- and women-owned builders to hurry up choices for sure inexpensive housing tasks.
“For far too long, new housing has only lived in a press release and not actually been able to be delivered on a timeline where those who live in the neighborhood would also be able to enjoy that same housing,” Mamdani mentioned.
The mayor has set a objective of constructing 200,000 inexpensive properties over the subsequent decade. His administration famous that the just lately adopted metropolis price range consists of $22 billion for inexpensive housing over 5 years, together with practically $5 billion in capital funding for brand spanking new inexpensive housing over the subsequent two years.
Hizzoner’s ‘Block-by-Block’ housing plan requires town to create greater than 14,000 new inexpensive properties in fiscal 2027 and regularly improve manufacturing to greater than 21,000 properties yearly by fiscal 2031. It identifies improvement on city-owned land as one a part of a broader technique that additionally consists of land-use modifications, publicly and privately financed housing, and new mixed-income financing instruments.
The 50,000 properties proven on the tracker usually are not all near development. The tasks vary from early planning to later improvement phases, and a few will nonetheless require neighborhood engagement, land-use approvals and financing.
Bozorg mentioned the administration’s job forward is each to maneuver that current pipeline ahead and proceed in search of extra locations to construct.
“It’s both about identifying the sites we’re working on and how we can ensure that we speed them up and be transparent about it,” she mentioned.
