Charles Alwakeel

Director and Zoning Nerd at | Cities | Architecture | Noise | Art

[Charles Alwakeel @charlesAlwakeel]

@emmagf He is wrong. There is a reason the program takes the bulk controls mostly from the existing AIRS program. Most relaxed rules are literally meant to minimize threshold impacts by relying on prior programs in effect which were capacity-limited by bureaucracy.

[Charles Alwakeel @charlesAlwakeel]

@ImpeachBragg I don't think you understand my niche. I'm a rare bird, so it's ok: More construction doesn't affect my bottom line. COY simplifying the zoning text probably hurts it in the long run. You should address the argument. More supply alleviates demand pressure (rents).

[Charles Alwakeel @charlesAlwakeel]

@floor_per_area It's not just even that. It's the insanity of the percentage required per unit in some districts. I massed an R6 site that was transit adjacent a couple of weeks ago. 20,000+ square feet of parking for 100 units. On a lot that is literally 25 steps from a subway entrance.

[Charles Alwakeel @charlesAlwakeel]

@danielgolliher @NYCCouncil I had 40+ 100% affordable units killed, at the last min, because the CM said we didn't engage throughout the process. I had dozens of emails asking for meetings, sending her dwgs, calcs, responses to staff comments, and mail receipts. Others voted with her bc aldermanic privilege

[Charles Alwakeel @charlesAlwakeel]

@ImpeachBragg That's totally not true. I have come across dozens of sites, in my job, where the parking mandate makes the site unbuildable. It generally happens in large sites in Brooklyn and Upper Manhattan. This will create more housing. And a lot of will be affordable.

[Charles Alwakeel @charlesAlwakeel]

Magneto was right.

[Charles Alwakeel @charlesAlwakeel]

@Muhamma41027708 @blancgrisnoir @AnnaSKova @ZelenskyyUa Friendly reminder that Saddam’s regime was propped up by Soviets. That Putin was KGB. And those wars wouldn’t have happened in a free Iraq. And that regimes that weren’t propped up by the USSR were responsive enough to their people to avoid useless wars like the Kuwait conflict.

[Charles Alwakeel @charlesAlwakeel]

@DuncanArchitect @MarketUrbanism I mean, the answer is straightforward (ie, ZR says it counts), but the precedent search and the assumption of regulatory uniformity across decades that could indicate otherwise… yeah.. not so much.

[Charles Alwakeel @charlesAlwakeel]

@MarketUrbanism @_alexsommer @hslatkin What does the Borough President’s Map look like? That’s generally the starting point for something like this.

[Charles Alwakeel @charlesAlwakeel]

@UWSPete @mattyglesias Cute. Because when we’ve tried to get special permit indoor school gyms approved in the UWS, it’s always a fight w/ the neighbors. Meanwhile, students were using and crowding bookings at public parks. You can’t complain about overbooked outdoor spaces while kneecapping solutions.

[Phil BuildTheFutureNow 🇺🇸🦅🌲💙 @PhilSustainable]

One condo like this one saves over two square mile of wilderness from suburbs sprawl. 🌲

500 homes for well over 1000 residents in one building, vs suburbs with 500 people per square mile.

[Charles Alwakeel @charlesAlwakeel]

@loud_socialist I mean, they're not wrong this one.

[Charles Alwakeel @charlesAlwakeel]

@MarketUrbanism @ndhapple @2AvSagas I mean, let's get real: MIH was passed under the assumption that 421(a) would remain unchanged. It did not. No changes were made to MIH to correspond with those. It's not even supposed to work.

[Charles Alwakeel @charlesAlwakeel]

@MarketUrbanism @ndhapple @2AvSagas That is correct. They can basically do whatever they want if it's a state action.

[Charles Alwakeel @charlesAlwakeel]

@ndhapple @MarketUrbanism @2AvSagas In a lot of the more recent high-density rezonings, the city has run against the maximum floor area ratio restriction imposed by the state for residential uses (12.0). No such restriction exists for commercial uses. Residential use is generally what the market wants.

[Charles Alwakeel @charlesAlwakeel]

@thecitywanderer So in adding to that, the most efficient plate for an office plate being around 80' deep (daylighting and productivity studies) doesn't correspond with the most efficient depth for a residential plate. 80' biases really high-end luxury condos and makes rentals pretty hard to pen.

[Charles Alwakeel @charlesAlwakeel]

@thecitywanderer Well... Let me nerd out here. Office buildings are rarely a problem to convert because of egress, the maximum code restriction for the depth a habitable room is more problematic. Office plates are generally pretty deep. But egress is generally fine.

[Charles Alwakeel @charlesAlwakeel]

@Nick_10306 @KGforNYC Land prices increase in upzoned areas because housing is scarce. People don’t buy land to look at it. The source of the problem is housing prices driven by scarcity / restrictive zoning.

PS, if you think all non-union work is shoddy, you clearly haven’t worked in construction.

[Charles Alwakeel @charlesAlwakeel]

@MarketUrbanism I saw a ZRD1 that argued that it was the rim of the car wheel, but debatable. It is whatever the most current agency determination says.