A Train Grows in Brooklyn
By Benjamin Schneider
December 11, 2025 at 11:43 AM EST
New York City’s first new transit line in decades, the $5.5 billion Interborough Express, could transform fast-growing parts of Brooklyn and Queens. Critics and supporters alike see the IBX as a potential prelude to more dramatic changes. Some advocates say the project needs to be coupled with major increases in housing density along the line in order to reach its full potential. The New York Building Congress, a construction industry trade group, released a report analyzing the current zoning along the route. It found that in areas within a half mile of a future station, roughly 20% of land is zoned industrial, 30% of land is zoned high-density residential, and 50% of land is zoned low-density residential. The report recommends the city rezone the largely low-density areas around the line to accommodate about 83,000 additional homes — a level of density comparable to that of Brownstone Brooklyn, according to Carlo Casa, director of policy and research at the Building Congress. “It’s not turning the area into the Upper East Side — it’s a little more housing,” he said. Read more here.
