New Rochelle housing surge proves predictable zoning’s impact

New Rochelle embraced the abundance mindset long before the “yes in my backyard ” crowd made it cool.

Today, the city, 25 minutes north of New York City by train, is a reference point for how zoning reform and predictable approvals can speed mixed-income housing production citywide.

The city built on a 2015 rezoning that created a downtown overlay and moved away from traditional use-based zoning. Officials offered developers a clear playbook. Follow the form-based code, meet mixed-income and design standards and receive a streamlined approval in about 90 days. This predictability reduced entitlement risk and helped lenders back projects that might have stalled in slower, more discretionary systems.

“Our model creates predictability, creates developability, creates certainty, eliminates the political process and that discretionary land use approval process that you see in so many other municipalities, because we front loaded the requirements,” Adam Salgado, New Rochelle’s commissioner of development, told The Builder’s Daily.

The plan became a state model for housing reform after it brought thousands of new housing units. Thousands more are underway. New Rochelle’s plan could become a bigger national model for zoning success after being named a co-winner of the 2026 Ivory Prize for Housing Affordability in its Policy and Regulatory Reform category.

“It’s really supply-forward — let’s increase supply so we can make an impact on affordability,” Clark Ivory, CEO of Ivory Homes and founder of Ivory Innovations, told The Builder’s Daily.

Overlay needed to revitalize moribund downtown

New Rochelle pursued the downtown overlay because its traditional zoning produced fragmented, underused parcels and left the city’s core underperforming.

“We knew we had underutilized our downtown,” Salgado said.

City leaders saw stalled projects, aging buildings and surface parking lots where walkable, mixed-use buildings could go instead. They wanted a predictable framework that could attract serious capital while still meeting community goals on design and affordability.

Officials also faced pressure to expand the tax base without overburdening homeowners. Concentrating taller buildings and higher density downtown offered a way to add jobs, retail and housing on infrastructure that already existed. The overlay encouraged mixed-income projects near transit, which helped justify public investments and gave the city leverage to negotiate benefits.

“One of the benefits of all this development is that we’ve gotten some infrastructure funds,” Salgado said. “The way we’ve structured a lot of the entitlements has given us resources to respond to some of the infrastructure upgrades, and sewers is one of them.”

The overlay flipped that script by publishing clear rules and timelines for compliant projects. Developers who followed the form-based code saw quicker approvals and fewer surprises, which made lenders more comfortable. Residents, in turn, could see what was allowed on each block and push for good design rather than fight every project.

Salgado said the city has authorized 11,047 units across 34 projects since 2015. Eight buildings are now open. Another 25 projects, totaling about 5,100 units, are completed and in leasing. Roughly 91% of those homes are occupied, and about 1,100 qualify as affordable, he said, meaning just over 20% of the new units meet affordability standards.

“We have one project under construction currently that’s basically affordable condominium projects,” Salgado said.

A model for state reform

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul folded New Rochelle’s results into her Let Them Build agenda, which she introduced as part of her 2026 State of the State address in January. It targets reforms to New York’s environmental review law to speed housing development.

The plan would exempt qualifying housing projects from lengthy State Environmental Quality Review Act reviews and set firm permitting deadlines. Those reforms are still tied up in debate over a $268 billion budget that is now late.

New Rochelle’s plan helped shape the environmental review piece.

Salgado said a “theoretical development scenario” supports the code by front-loading environmental review. It models impacts by category, instead of repeating the analysis for each project.

In making her case for reform, Hochul has pointed to New Rochelle’s new and future housing units as a proof point that saying yes to housing can expand supply while holding rent growth in check. State officials note that rent growth in New Rochelle fell about 5% from 2020 to 2023 as new apartments opened.

“It’s a supply side approach to affordability, to just moderate the market rate rental unit in the area,” Salgado said. “We’ve seen 2% and 3% rent growth over the last four years in New Rochelle compared to New York City, which is like in the double digits.”