Steve Shane, president of the Roosevelt Island Operation Corporation, working with RIOC board member DHCR Commissioner Deborah Van Amerongen, has changed the way things are going to be done on Roosevelt Island -- in order to keep the remaining Mitchell-Lamas affordable for future generations.
RIOC has decided to to deny any extensions to ground leases that will most likely trigger buy-outs from the Mitchell-Lama program.
While some tenants were hoping to buy their apartments and keep them affordable for their own tenancies, Van Amerongen and Shane are looking toward long-term affordability.
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WIRE, May 19, 2007
Shane Rejects Westview Deal As Too Costly and Failing to Preserve Affordable Housing for the Future
News Analysis by Dick Lutz
"We will bring to bear whatever tools we have in our arsenal to avoid having present affordable housing units converted to market, because they would then be lost forever. They are a precious commodity and, tragically, we can't replace them."
In brief, that's RIOC President Steve Shane's policy on Roosevelt Island's remaining Mitchell-Lama buildings - Westview, Island House, and Rivercross. It's a policy he articulated Monday night in a meeting with
the Westview Task Force, and in an interview Wednesday with The Main Street WIRE. He articulates the policy with confidence that he and his boss are on the same page. She is Deborah VanAmerongen, the Commissioner
of the State Divison of Housing and Community Renewal (DHCR) and Chair
of the Board of Directors of the Roosevelt Island Operating Corporation
(RIOC).
In his WIRE column, Shane writes on this subject, "RIOC's core public purpose continues to be the fulfilling of the Master Plan under the GDP [General Development Plan]. There is more to affordability than the
present occupants, as public policy requires consideration of the next generations during the remaining period of the Master Lease, still some 60 years away, before all reverts to New York City [in 2068]."
The policy turns the Westview Task Force's current Letter of Intent
(LOI) with the building owner into scrap paper. Shane's position is,
essentially, that without a ground-lease extension, Westview has very
little value. If RIOC gives that extension, it becomes far more valuable
- and a prime candidate to leave Mitchell-Lama, subtracting itself from
the City's supply of affordable housing.
