Albany Weighs Law to Bolster Affordability for Battery Park City Residents of Modest Means
State Senator Brian Kavanagh and State Assembly member Charles Fall are sponsoring a bill in the New York State legislature that would, if enacted, offer a measure of affordability protection specifically to low-, moderate-, and middle-income Battery Park City residents.
The bill would establish reductions in payments for both rental tenants and condo owners who earn less 150 percent of a federal benchmark known as “area median income” (AMI). This threshold—which changes each year for each region of the country, as determined by statisticians at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development—is currently set at $148,350 for a one-person household and ranges up to $245,700 for a household of up to six people.
The measure sponsored by Senator Kavanaugh and Assembly member Fall seeks to defray housing costs for both renters and owners whose primary residence is in Battery Park City by requiring the Battery Park City Authority to offer them an partial rebate on the portion of their housing costs equal to the percentage that is remitted to the Authority as ground rent.
This calculation is rooted in the exotic nature of property ownership in Battery Park City, where homeowners, landlords, and developers do not own outright the land they occupy, but instead lease the space (currently through June 2069) from the BPCA in exchange for yearly payments of ground rent. (The Authority also collects so-called “payments in lieu of taxes,” or PILOT.) While the bill now under consideration in Albany would not reduce the current ground rent paid by eligible residents, it would insulate this group by exempting them from future ground rent increases above the current baseline.
An analysis of U.S. Census data for the 10280 zip code in southern Battery Park City indicates that 38 percent of condominium units and 35 percent of rental households are occupied by residents whose household income falls below the 150 percent of AMI yardstick. This translates into slightly more than 500 condominium units, and roughly 1,000 rental households. In the 10282 zip code of northern Battery Park City, approximately 240 condominiums and slightly more than 400 rental units would potentially benefit.
At its February 22 meeting, Community Board 1 enacted a resolution supporting the bill sponsored by Mr. Kavanagh and Mr. Fall, concluding, “CB1 urges the Senate and Assembly to pass this legislation and urges Governor Hochul to sign it into law as soon as the bill is presented.”