The Downsides of Upzoning

As housing costs rise nationwide, many advocates have urged that cities prioritize accommodating future development through upzoning. Now, the Pratt Center for Community Development is exploring concerns that upzoning also carries unintended harmful consequences.

The new report, Flawed Findings, concludes that New York tends to greenlight upzoning and major developments without properly assessing these consequences, the most prominent of which is displacement.

"There is a complete disconnect [from] the lived experience of these folks," a researcher tells Aline Reynolds in Next City.

The report recommends a citywide displacement risk analysis to inform a new anti-displacement policy agenda with a goal of no net loss of affordable units.