You probably haven't heard of the Board of Standards and Appeals, but it has growing influence over what gets built in New York City. The five-member board of city planning experts can now fast-track affordable housing projects that otherwise wouldn't be permitted by zoning laws, thanks to a series of housing-related ballot proposals that voters approved last year. That augments their ability to carve out special permissions for development of all kinds—a residential building in an industrial-zoned neighborhood, for example.
This little-known board has also become the latest nexus of the perennial NIMBY vs. YIMBY, Council vs. Mayor tension. Mayor Zohran Mamdani nominated longtime planning wonk John Mangin to the post in June, pending City Council approval.
Members are still stung about Mangin's role as policy director in crafting the ballot proposals last year that diluted some of their power over what gets built in their districts. Those proposals followed a significant overhaul of housing policy achieved in concert with the City Council in 2024 called "City of Yes for Housing Opportunity."
Last month, a Politico leak from a closed-door City Council rendezvous revealed that several members "voiced serious reservations" about Mangin. Someone had Googled him and found a 2014 paper in which he wrote about "homeowner cartels" and "kludgy" ideas from housing advocates. Members also alleged that they hadn't been given enough of a heads up from the Mamdani administration about Mangin's nomination before it was announced publicly.
So this summer, Mangin, a hilariously obscure, 48-year-old would-be bureaucrat, became the face that launched 1,000 op-eds. Former City Planning Commission Chair Dan Garodnick wrote in Vital City that he must be confirmed. Manhattan Institute guys wrote in City Journal that Mangin's appointment should be "straightforward." Abundance New York wrote about the Mangin Mandate. The Crain's Editorial Board came out in support. The New York Housing Conference got 47 housing organizations to sign onto an open letter calling Mangin "highly qualified." And several showed up to Mangin's hearing to testify on his behalf, including Frank Clarke of the New York Building Congress, Garodnick, and Open New York's Annemarie Gray, who described Mangin as essentially the housing messiah.