By Rebecca Picciotto | Photographs by Shuran Huang for WSJ

Cities across the U.S. that aim to build new housing often run into fierce community opposition from Nimbys, who object to new development in "my backyard."

But one commuter town outside New York City is slicing through red tape and building thousands of new apartments.

New Rochelle has completed more than 4,500 new housing units over the past decade. Another 6,500 units are either in the pipeline or the planning stages for the next several years. Those 11,000 new units would represent a 37% increase in the number of New Rochelle apartments compared with 10 years ago.

About a 40-minute train ride to Midtown Manhattan, this suburb of more than 85,000 remains one of the few places offering relative affordability in the notoriously expensive New York City metro area.

New Rochelle median rents are only 1.6% higher than in 2020, well below the 25% or higher increases in New York City and outer markets like New Jersey's Newark, Hoboken and Jersey City, according to Apartment List.

New Rochelle's median rent actually declined 2% from 2020 to 2023, while median rent nationally was surging at a double-digit rate.

City officials say they relied on a policy framework that encourages residential building. New Rochelle streamlined environmental reviews, offered developers tax incentives, and created standardized zoning rules to make it easier and cheaper to build homes.

Community pushback in New Rochelle doesn't cause the same delays common in other cities. If a residential project meets certain criteria, New Rochelle officials assure it will get a 90-day approval process.

"They set the playbook, then private developers could come and play," said Scott Rechler, chief executive of RXR. The property developer created a master plan for the city's redevelopment and has invested more than $1 billion in New Rochelle. At One Clinton Park, a 28-story luxury tower the firm opened downtown in 2022, 92% of the units are occupied.

The developer-friendly politics of New Rochelle are in contrast with the way city officials sometimes respond to voter frustration over housing. That includes New York City's Democratic mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani, who is rattling some real-estate professionals with his promise to freeze rents on rent-stabilized units.

"You can say rent control or rent freeze and I understand it," said New Rochelle Mayor Yadira Ramos-Herbert, who added that the city is even considering some version of rent control in certain units. "But the success of our development has allowed us to be able to invest and explore other opportunities around affordability."

Still, with the U.S. housing shortage intensifying and home prices rising to all-time highs, more elected officials are starting to adopt New Rochelle's mindset.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom recently loosened a stringent environmental law that had stalled decades of projects. Oregon last month enacted new laws to make it easier for developers to build duplexes, townhomes and modular homes.

On Capitol Hill, a bipartisan housing package, which includes developer tax incentives and expedited environmental reviews, is advancing to a Senate vote.

New Rochelle's housing push started as an attempt to revitalize the city's downtown. But with the growing housing shortage in the NYC metro area, the city saw an opportunity to attract new residents struggling to find a place to live elsewhere.

In 2014, then-Mayor Noam Bramson and the city council selected RXR as the master developer to reimagine New Rochelle. Within a year, RXR's redevelopment plan was approved, significantly faster than the 10 to 15 years that the development firm typically waits in other New York-area metros, Rechler said.

To speed the building process, New Rochelle approved thousands of units at once. That was in contrast to many cities that approve new zoning for apartment buildings on a piecemeal basis.

City officials and RXR executives met with residents to listen to concerns about whether adding more housing would strain public services. In an effort to win over public support, RXR has built a 10,000-square-foot theater and holds competitions for local artists to live in one of its new buildings rent-free for a year.

New Rochelle's easier regulatory environment has since attracted $2.5 billion of new development to its downtown. The relative affordability has drawn new residents, who are filling up the nearly two dozen recently completed apartment towers that form the city's burgeoning skyline. Rents range from $2,000 for a studio to $8,000 for some three-bedrooms.

Along with New Rochelle's housing boom, classic growing pains that accompany rapid redevelopment are getting worse.

Local leaders have steered around many complaints to give priority to building, but they are starting to make some concessions to residents, including the mayor's willingness to consider some version of rent control. The city already requires that developers designate at least 10% of their new units as affordable housing.

Karen Hessel, who has lived in New Rochelle since 1992, launched an online map in 2017 to track all the new projects. She says that the development has had some positive impacts but that it has also brought inevitable disruption.

"It's the pains of construction," she said. "The roads being closed. The sidewalks being closed. The noise. The lack of parking."

Other longtime residents say the new renters are pricing out the locals because they are willing to pay more to live in the new upscale high rises. And while the former Manhattanites might now live in New Rochelle, veteran locals resent the fact that they still spend and work in the five boroughs.

"They work in the city, they spend their money in the city and they come back here and they sleep," said Shaun Wayawotzki, who helps run a local group opposing the continued new development. "They're not part of the community."

The city has used revenue from developer fees to boost food services, make infrastructure repairs and launch down-payment assistance programs for residents looking to buy homes, the mayor said.

Many of the newcomers are from New York City, where more residents are finding themselves priced out. One in three of the more than 7,000 incoming New Rochelle residents are from New York City, the highest rate from anywhere, according to municipal data.

New Rochelle features a diverse, middle-income population where nearly half the residents are Black and Latino.

Aaron Thornton and his then-pregnant wife moved to the area from Manhattan's Upper East Side one year ago. They are now paying about $3,600 a month to live in a two-bedroom in one of RXR's new apartment buildings, complete with a fitness center, office lounge and other amenities.

"A lot of young professionals are moving out of the city because prices are ridiculous, especially in Manhattan," said Thornton, who is 33 and commutes to Brooklyn for his teaching job. "We couldn't have raised or had a baby there, because there's just no space."

Write to Rebecca Picciotto at Rebecca.Picciotto@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

August 05, 2025 05:30 ET (09:30 GMT)

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