Mamdani announces 12 districts for Affordable Housing Fast Track; five are in Queens

# What happened Mayor Zohran Mamdani and the Department of City Planning named 12 community districts where the city's Affordable Housing Fast Track will take effect in January 2027. Five of those districts are in Queens: Community Districts 4, 5, 10, 11 and 13. The Fast Track was created by a City Charter amendment approved by voters in November 2025 to accelerate affordable housing production in neighborhoods that have added the least housing recently.

# Which neighborhoods are on the list Elmhurst, Corona, Ridgewood, Maspeth, Middle Village, South Ozone Park, Howard Beach, Auburndale, Bayside, Douglaston, Queens Village, Bellerose and Rosedale. The full set of 12 districts represents about one-fifth of the city's 59 community districts.

# Why these districts were chosen City planning data show the 12 designated districts produced just 883 of the citywide 63,870 new affordable homes over the past five years — about 1.1% of the total. Four of those districts, including Queens CDs 10 and 13, produced fewer than 10 affordable homes during that five-year span. City officials framed the Fast Track as a tool to distribute housing growth more evenly across neighborhoods.

# How the Fast Track changes the review process Under the Fast Track, eligible rezoning proposals that create affordable housing in the designated districts will follow a 90-day public review process instead of the traditional seven-month Uniform Land Use Review Procedure (ULURP). Key procedural changes:

• Community board and borough president reviews remain, but they occur concurrently rather than sequentially.
• Commission still reviews proposals.
• Track rezoning proposals.
• Environmental review requirements and landmark protections remain unchanged.

The city says this shortens the process by roughly four months for eligible proposals.

# Numbers that matter

• 12 designated community districts out of 59 in the city.
• 883 affordable homes produced by those districts over the past five years.
• 63,870 total new affordable homes citywide in the same period.
• Brooklyn Community District 5 produced over 5,700 affordable units in that five-year cycle — more than the 12 Fast Track districts combined.

Mayor Mamdani described the Fast Track as a tool to make sure housing growth is shared more fairly across neighborhoods. Deputy Mayor Leila Borzog called it a fulfillment of voters' mandate for affordability. Department of City Planning director Sideya Sherman cited longstanding uneven housing production across the five boroughs.

# What to expect next January 2027. Starting then, qualifying rezoning applications in the 12 districts that include permanently affordable housing will follow the 90-day review path described above. Environmental review and landmark safeguards are not altered by this change.

# Bottom line