Building a City Where Growth Is Shared

By Yadira Ramos-Herbert, Mayor of New Rochelle, New York

Across America, rising housing costs – whether buying or renting – continue to outpace wages for far too many. But in today’s post, Mayor Yadira Ramos-Herbert makes the case that it doesn’t have to be that way. She explains how in her city of New Rochelle, 30 minutes outside Manhattan and the fastest growing city in New York, they have been able to keep costs down by streamlining processes, building more housing, and tying growth to public benefit. As Mayor Ramos-Herbert states, “affordability is not achieved by standing still.” And for more from this dynamic, impactful Mayor, check out my recent conversation with her on our podcast, An Honorable Profession. - Debbie Cox Bultan, NewDEAL CEO

In recent years, affordability has moved from a policy concern to a daily reality for families across the country. Since 2020, overall prices have risen by roughly 25 percent, forcing people to make painful tradeoffs about housing, transportation, and childcare.

As a mayor, and as a mother raising two young children, I see those pressures up close. In New Rochelle, we made a deliberate decision not to treat them as inevitable.

Affordability has been a guiding principle here long before it became a national headline. When I took office two years ago, I inherited both an ambitious vision and a serious responsibility: to ensure that growth did not come at the expense of the people who already call New Rochelle home. We call our approach the “New Rochelle Model,” not because it is perfect, but because it is intentional. It is built on the idea that cities are better off planning for growth than reacting to crises.

That approach has not been immune to hardship. Like cities everywhere, New Rochelle has faced federal funding cuts, economic volatility, and the aftershocks of a global pandemic. We have had to make adjustments, prioritize carefully, and stretch limited resources. But those constraints sharpened our focus on what local government can control, and how smart policy can create room to maneuver even in uncertain times.

So what has actually worked?

First, we made it easier to build new housing, quickly and at scale. Nearly a decade ago, New Rochelle adopted a form-based zoning code and downtown overlay that allowed apartment buildings to move forward without years of discretionary approvals. If a project meets the rules, it moves. In many cases, approvals take as little as 90 days. That certainty reduced risk, lowered costs, and unlocked sustained private investment.

Second, we built enough housing to change market dynamics. Since launching this framework, New Rochelle has approved 32 major development projects, delivering more than 11,000 new housing units. That represents roughly a 37 percent increase in the city’s apartment supply over the past decade. About 65 percent of those homes are already built, and they are leasing at roughly 84 percent, even in a cooling market.

Third, we tied growth to public benefit. Nearly 20 percent of the units approved are designated affordable, almost double what our local code requires. Developer fees have been reinvested into infrastructure, food access, and down-payment assistance programs that help existing residents build stability and wealth. Growth here is not free-floating; it is linked to tangible community returns.

The outcome has been measurable affordability. While rents in peer cities rose by as much as 25 percent between 2020 and 2025, median rents in New Rochelle increased by just 1.6 percent, and even declined during parts of that period. Our designation as a New York State Pro-Housing Community, which unlocked access to $650 million in state funding, reinforced a simple principle: cities willing to take housing seriously should be supported for doing so.

Today, New Rochelle is a diverse city just 30 minutes outside of Manhattan, and the fastest-growing city in New York State. For generations, working families and creatives have chosen New Rochelle because it offered access to opportunity without shutting people out. But like many others, we faced the risk that rising demand would erode that diversity. Our work has been about proving that growth does not have to mean displacement, and that affordability is not achieved by standing still.

As we prepare to welcome more than 15,000 new residents over the next decade, we are investing in the infrastructure that makes growth sustainable. That means modernizing the New Rochelle Transit Center into a true multimodal hub, improving regional connectivity while supporting a denser, more walkable downtown. It also means progressing projects like the LINC, which is correcting past planning decisions by transforming a divisive highway into connected public space that strengthens surrounding neighborhoods.

We are planning with climate in mind as well. From flood mitigation to resilient infrastructure, we recognize that affordability tomorrow depends on preparedness today. Growth that is not durable is not affordable.

The New Rochelle Model is not a silver bullet. It requires political will, sustained engagement, and a willingness to navigate disruption along the way. But it shows that even amid fiscal constraints and national uncertainty, local leadership can shape markets, stabilize costs, and expand opportunity for the people who make a city home.

Yadira Ramos-Herbert is the 24th Mayor of the City of New Rochelle.