‘the Housing Crisis Isn’t Inevitable’: Nyc Planning Chief Dan Garodnick Reflects On Four Tumultuous, Eventful Years

NEW YORK — Dan Garodnick is leaving city government after four years heading the Department of City Planning, a stretch that saw sweeping reforms to modernize land use rules in wide swaths of the city.

Appointed by former Mayor Eric Adams in early 2022, Garodnick shepherded the initiatives — including a controversial three-part overhaul of the zoning code known as the "City of Yes" — through tricky politics and an often-skeptical City Council.

Amid a mammoth housing shortage — underscored by a rental vacancy rate of just 1.4 percent — Garodnick was often the face of the administration’s efforts to increase residential construction, and his tenure in the planning department was considered a bright spot of Adams’ otherwise tumultuous and scandal-ridden term.

A former council member, he was widely seen as essential to negotiations around the citywide housing blueprint, which faced staunch opposition in many low-slung, outer borough neighborhoods and came before the Council just weeks after Adams was indicted on federal corruption charges.

All together, officials estimate the City of Yes and rezonings in places like Midtown South and Long Island City will collectively make way for some 130,000 units over 15 years — though it will be up to the private sector to actually build that housing.

“The numbers tell the story,” Garodnick said in an interview with POLITICO. “We took on some of the hardest challenges facing the city, swung big and delivered on housing.”

The Adams administration left Mayor Zohran Mamdani with a number of new tools to spur development — including a set of voter-backed charter revisions that curb the Council’s ability to block housing proposals.

Mamdani appears inclined to continue on a broadly similar track, tapping one of Adams’ top housing officials, Leila Bozorg, to serve as deputy mayor for housing and planning. (Garodnick was considered for that deputy mayor post.) Mamdani has not yet announced his pick for city planning.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Did you consider staying on in your current role? Was that on the table? 

After four extraordinarily productive years, this felt like the right time for me to leave my role as director of the Department of City Planning and chair of the City Planning Commission. I'm incredibly proud of what we achieved, and I believe New York City is on a stronger path today because of it. But it felt like the right time for me to move on to some new adventures.

With any land use initiative, the fruits may not be fully realized for years or decades, and for now, we’re still in a housing shortage. How are you thinking about your legacy, and how do you think people will look back on the Adams administration’s work on housing and planning?

City of Yes was the most significant zoning reform since 1961 — modernizing outdated rules to allow housing growth in every neighborhood and also to strengthen small businesses and advance a greener economy. …To me, the numbers tell the story. We took on some of the hardest challenges facing the city, swung big and delivered on housing. With the 130,000 homes enabled through City of Yes and our five neighborhood plans, we accomplished in four years what had taken two decades before us.

What do you think are the next steps on the charter revisions, and how can the new administration capitalize on them?

We have seen a greater recognition for the need to build new housing, and voters clearly agreed with that in November. What it means in practice remains to be seen, but it's obvious that voters had a perspective in favor here. I think that we will see in the coming weeks and months how private applicants and also the mayor use the tools provided to allow for faster approval of affordable housing, and what that dynamic looks like.

You were new to the planning department when you came into this role. Do you think having an outsider perspective helped, and what do you think was your biggest mark on the agency itself?

I remember being across the table from the Department of City Planning as a member of the City Council, and I remember the feeling that the rules were dense, complicated and inaccessible. To me, it pointed to a need to make this material much more accessible to the public and to policymakers. My view is that zoning is complicated, and people will not and should not support what they don't understand. So it was important to me to focus relentlessly on clarity, plain language explanations, visual tools, a multilingual approach and active engagement with communities across the city. We met people where they were and explained how outdated rules affect their everyday life, and made the case that the housing crisis isn't inevitable — it's the result of policy choices and within our power to change.

Q: Amidst things like City of Yes, there were significant political headwinds — Adams’ indictment and a relationship between the mayor and Council that had deteriorated quite a bit. Do you think that hindered your work at all, and do you have any advice for the new administration in navigating its relationship with the new speaker and council members?

Ultimately, it did not impact our ability to succeed. What I will remember is the professionalism and dedication of the people that I work alongside at city planning and across city government, including the City Council. Even amid some chaotic conditions, we stayed focused on delivering for New Yorkers, and honestly, I've never been prouder to serve in city government than during that time.

In terms of advice, the City Council is supposed to be an active counterbalance to the mayor, and I expect they will be. Take the time to treat elected officials with the respect that they deserve and make sure they have the tools that they need to be able to say yes.

You’ve worked closely with the real estate industry in this role. One ongoing question around the new mayor has been how the private sector will respond to a democratic socialist in City Hall. What’s your view on that? Do you think anyone’s fleeing to Florida?

I don't believe in any great flight out of New York City as a result of the mayoral election, and I also believe that the mayor is very interested in finding ways to create more housing in New York.

In a lot of ways, Mayor Mamdani’s rhetoric on land use issues hasn’t been all that different from Mayor Adams, despite their very different political leanings. What do you make of that?

Well, I think there's a tremendous opportunity to build on our recent successes. Mayor Mamdani has repeatedly pointed to City of Yes as a foundation to build on. He’s emphasized transit-oriented development, which is exactly the kind of smart, climate-aligned growth that cities need. He's also been clear about streamlining government to deliver housing faster.

What’s next for you?

I'm going to take a little time to reflect and recharge and think about what's next, but I am always going to be deeply committed to New York City and public service.