New York City Politics and Urbanism Daily
NYC’s Small-Lot Housing Test Meets Task-Force Fatigue
Monday, April 27, 2026 · 4 min
City Council is eyeing nearly 3,000 small vacant lots for housing, but the reform test is whether “cutting red tape” turns into actual code changes, permits, and units — not another civic process loop.
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City Council is eyeing nearly 3,000 small vacant lots for housing, but the reform test is whether “cutting red tape” turns into actual code changes, permits, and units — not another civic process loop.
In this episode
- ‘Lots’ of potential: Menin says City Council will launch advisory group to cut red tape, develop small vacant sites for new housing — r/nyc (50 pts, 21 comments)
[City Council Speaker Julie Menin](https://council.nyc.gov/) announced Friday that the city’s legislature would create a new Advisory Group on Housing Affordability, with the goal of reevaluating regulations and cutting red tape to allow housing development on nearly 3,000 vacant lots across the city. The lots the council initially identified are **generally considered too small for development…
“An advisory group tasked with cutting red tape is some serious irony.” — r/nyc (34 upvotes)
Our take: We laughed because, yes, creating a group to reduce bureaucracy is peak New York. But if this group produces specific zoning and construction-code fixes for 17-to-25-foot lots, we’ll take the irony and the apartments.
“Another task force. Another commission. Another advisory group. Another czar. The Council and Mayor's office will do anything other than take action. But at least this gives some hand picked friends some resume building.” — r/nyc (10 upvotes)
Our take: The cynicism is earned: New York has an Olympic-level talent for turning obvious fixes into stakeholder theater. The standard here should be brutally simple — a deadline, a bill, and measurable new housing capacity, or it was just résumé confetti.
“While 35k units is not enough to ease the housing crisis, but it is better than nothing. I would be interested to read more details on her proposal.” — r/nyc (28 upvotes)
Our take: This is the right posture: 35,000 units would not solve the crisis, but dismissing it because it is not a silver bullet is how the city stays stuck. The details matter — especially whether the rules actually make these skinny lots financeable and buildable.
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