Plan to Build Thousands of Apartments Will Transform the East Bronx

The New York City Council approved a rezoning plan that will produce nearly 7,000 housing units, some of which will be offered at below-market rents, near four new commuter rail stations.

The New York City Council unanimously approved a plan that would radically transform a section of the Bronx, replacing low-slung industrial buildings with thousands of new apartments as the city contends with its worst housing shortage since the late 1960s.

The rezoning plan will remake a 46-block corridor around the Morris Park, Van Nest and Parkchester areas, adding about 7,000 housing units near four new commuter rail stations, which are scheduled to be completed by 2027. In the years that follow a new neighborhood would emerge, made up primarily of mid- and high-rise residential towers.

The plan is the latest rezoning to take place in the Bronx, the poorest borough in the city, whose southern neighborhoods have been transformed in recent years by the march of new construction and high-rise rentals. This effort targets a slice of the East Bronx that now has very few residents — just 637 — and aligns with the Adams administration’s blueprint of encouraging new housing in pockets of New York City, including in areas currently filled with manufacturing sites.

Compared with the rest of the city, the Bronx has avoided the expansion of large-scale development that has overhauled Brooklyn, Manhattan and Queens. Yet developers have been eager to push into what is considered the city’s last frontier.

“The Bronx is saying ‘yes’ to more housing in our backyards, communities and neighborhoods, and serving as a model to the rest of our city on how to lead from the front,” Mayor Eric Adams, a Democrat, said in a statement. “I am calling on our partners in the City Council to join us in this fight and deliver on the promise that working-class families are asking us to do: build more and make this city more affordable.”

The plan is the first neighborhood rezoning under Mayor Adams and is part of a broader rezoning plan that started in 2018 under Mayor Bill de Blasio but took shape under Mr. Adams.