The one where 472 new apartments cleared the Land Use Committee 12-0 in a single roll call

It took one roll call and not a single no vote. Chair Kevin Riley gaveled in the Committee on Land Use, coupled four proposals into one ballot, and walked away with two boroughs of new housing approved, 12 in the affirmative, zero in the negative, no abstentions.

The biggest piece was in Queens. LU 56 and LU 57 approved the 147-14 Northern Boulevard rezoning in Councilmember Ung's district, a zoning map amendment paired with a text amendment that lets a developer raise two new mixed-use residential buildings totaling roughly 389 units. Of those, 97 would be permanently affordable. Riley opened the floor for comment before the vote and no colleague rose, so the largest approval of the day moved on a quiet aye.

The Bronx item put city land to work. LU 64 and LU 65 covered 351 Powers Avenue in Councilmember Encarnacion's district, an HPD disposition of city-owned property under Section 197-E of the Charter, the recently enacted ELER provisions, and Article 11 of the Private Housing Finance Law. The plan is an eight-story mixed-use building with 83 affordable rental units, a community facility, and replacement parking for the Department of Education. It is the smaller project by unit count but the deeper affordability play, since every one of those 83 homes is rent-restricted.

The rest of the docket was lighter. The committee approved LU 58 for Denino's sidewalk cafe in Councilmember Epstein's Manhattan district, and approved LU 66 for the Shalong sidewalk cafe in Councilmember Wilson's district with one modification, trimming it to one table and two chairs, the kind of precise line that tells you a sidewalk has only so much room. Committee clerk William Martin read the coupled roll, the ayes came in clean, and Riley adjourned. Both rezonings now head to the full Council, where the real test of the 472 promised homes, and the 180 marked affordable, will be the buildings that actually rise.