Mayor Bill de Blasio is pushing ahead with a controversial approval step for hotel development, despite the warnings of city budget office staff about the long-term consequences of the move.
"New York City leaders, led by Mayor Bill de Blasio, are closing in on a controversial plan to drastically restrict hotel development," report Dana Rubinstein and J. David Goodman.
"The mayor wants to require City Council approval for any new hotel, anywhere in the city — a layer of scrutiny otherwise reserved for neighborhood-altering projects such as airports, helipads, racetracks, large stadiums and drive-in movie theaters."
According to the article, the mayor justifies the proposed discretionary approval on the increased traffic and activity caused by hotels. Critics of the plan says similar discretionary approvals have gutted hotel development in the city in the recent past.
City budget officials are among the voices suggesting that the special permits proposed for hotel development would "eventually leave New York with insufficient hotel capacity, potentially costing $350 million by 2025 and as much as $7 billion by 2035 in lost taxes," report Rubinstein and Goodman, based on a confidential budget office report leaked to The New York Times.
Planetizen first picked up news of the proposed special permits for hotel development in December 2020.
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