Don’t Let Syracuse Prioritize Developers Over Communities

Syracuse has some of the highest rates of segregation and concentrated poverty in the nation. Yet the city’s ReZone plan doubles down on racist, exclusionary zoning that has long plagued the city.

While the plan includes some important improvements – like changing the zoning designation of communities adjacent to I-81, requiring some affordable housing development, and expanding the definition of single use family housing designations – it ultimately prioritizes developers’ interests over residents, and fails to protect the communities that would be directly impacted by the changes.

This outdated plan does nothing to desegregate neighborhoods, and instead employs the same exclusionary zoning methods that have for decades prevented low-income people from moving into wealthier neighborhoods and put them at greater risk of displacement. It also fails to provide city-wide requirements for developers to create affordable housing. Finally, the plan ignores approximately 20 acres of land that will become available through the reconstruction of I-81.

We demand:

1. An opportunity for meaningful public participation, comprised of accessible and well-publicized information sessions for residents who live in the areas to be re-zoned;

2. That the future land made available by I-81 be designated to MX2 (low density commercial/residential), or place a moratorium on the ReZone plan until the City of Syracuse has a better understanding of the land that will be transferred to the city after the I-81 project’s completion;

3. An affordable housing requirement for every new multi-unit dwelling; and

4. A racial equity impact assessment to understand the integral role zoning has played in segregation and what must be done to avoid further perpetuating this harm.

Any successful zoning plan must include the voices of communities that will be most impacted by the changes it creates.