N.Y.C. Charter § 200: Section 200. Zoning resolution.

a. Except as provided in subdivision b, any existing resolution or regulation of the council, the board of estimate or of the city planning commission to regulate and limit the height and bulk of buildings, to regulate and determine the area of yards, courts and other open spaces, to regulate density of population or to regulate and restrict the locations of trades and industries and location of buildings designed for specific uses or creating districts for any such purpose, including any such regulation which provides that the board of standards and appeals may determine and vary the application of such resolutions or regulations in harmony with their general purpose and intent and in accordance with general or specific rules contained in such regulations, may be amended, repealed or added to only in the following manner:

1. The city planning commission may upon its own initiative at any time or upon application as provided in section two hundred one, adopt a resolution to amend the text of the zoning resolution subject to the limitations provided by law. Before adopting any such resolution, the commission shall notify any community board or borough board affected by the resolution and shall afford persons interested an opportunity to be heard at a time and place to be specified in a notice of hearing to be published in the City Record for the ten days of publication of the City Record immediately prior thereto setting forth in general terms the nature of the proposed resolution and a statement of the place at which the entire resolution may be examined.

2. Any resolution by the commission approving a change in the text of the zoning resolution shall be subject to review and approval by the council pursuant to section one hundred ninety-seven-d. Any resolution for a zoning text change which the mayor shall have certified to the council as necessary, and which has been disapproved by the commission, may be adopted by the council by a two-thirds vote and, after notice to the parties affected, a public hearing. The council shall act upon such resolution within fifty days of the filing of the certification of the mayor with the council, and such resolution shall become effective upon approval by the council.

3. In case a protest against such a resolution approved by the city planning commission shall have been presented to the city clerk within thirty days from the date of the filing of such resolution with the council, duly signed and acknowledged by the owners of twenty per centum or more of the area of:

(1)

the land included in changes proposed in such proposed resolution, or

(2)

the land immediately adjacent extending one hundred feet therefrom, or

(3)

the land, if any, directly opposite thereto extending one hundred feet from the street frontage of such opposite land, such resolution shall not be effective after the filing of such protest unless approved by the council by a three-fourths* vote within one hundred eighty days after the filing of said resolution with the city clerk. The effective date of such resolution, if so approved, shall be the date of such approval. A protest duly filed as herein provided may be withdrawn at any time within sixty days from the date of the filing of such resolution.

4. Notwithstanding anything in this subdivision to the contrary, where a resolution that would apply to specified parcels of real property a program established in the zoning resolution that mandates that any new housing on designated lots include minimum percentages of permanently affordable housing equivalent to or exceeding the requirements under any mandatory inclusionary housing program is proposed in conjunction with an application that is reviewed under section one hundred ninety-seven-e, the adoption of such resolution shall be pursuant to the expedited land use review procedure set forth in subdivisions c through j of section one hundred ninety-seven-e instead of the review procedure set forth in paragraphs one through three of this subdivision.

b. Designations of zoning districts under the zoning resolution and the issuance of special permits which under the terms of the zoning resolution are within the jurisdiction of the city planning commission shall be subject to review and approval pursuant to the procedures provided in section one hundred ninety-seven-c and section one hundred ninety-seven-d, except for applications to designate a zoning district under the zoning resolution reviewed in accordance with section one hundred ninety-seven-e, and except that whenever the city planning commission has not recommended approval of a proposed change in the designation of a zoning district or the issuance of a special permit under the zoning resolution or has failed to act on such a matter within the time specified in section one hundred ninety-seven-c, the council by a two-thirds vote may approve such change or the issuance of such permit only if the mayor shall have certified to the council that such change or issuance is necessary. The council shall act upon such designation or permit within fifty days of the filing of the certification of the mayor with the council.