January 19, 2026 – Howard Weiss is a Senior Partner, attorney and member of the Government Relations practice and Chairs the New York City Land Use and Administrative Law groups. He spoke with Commercial Observer magazine about site selection and zoning laws for potential new child care sites.

“In another piece of good news about site selection, zoning laws give a wide berth to potential new child care sites.

‘From a zoning perspective, these sites could be treated as nursery school-type programs,” said Howard S. Weiss, senior partner and land use chair at the law firm Davidoff Hutcher & Citron. “Under the definition of ‘school,’ a program would need to obtain the appropriate licensure under the New York City health code for child care programs. From a zoning perspective, though, there’s a fairly broad range of districts in which the program could be located, ranging from residential zoning districts to commercial zoning districts with just very limited exclusions. Like pre-K, it’s a favorite use even, with some limitations, in many manufacturing districts.’

Weiss also noted, however, that code and licensing requirements will be the greater obstacle.

‘The immediate challenge confronting the city will be how quickly a sufficient number of existing buildings can be found with available space that already meet the applicable code and licensing requirements, and would comply with the buildings’ currently permitted uses under their certificates of occupancy to accommodate the pre-K and 2-Care programs,’ Weiss said in a follow-up email to CO. ‘These requirements touch on space and supervision considerations, including specialized safety features and lower staff-to-child ratios for younger age groups, as well as a plethora of other requirements.’

Weiss noted that the Mamdani administration’s stated rollout procedure seems to have taken this into account, saying that the phased rollout to high-need areas for this coming fall allows spaces elsewhere time to get the upgrades, licenses and overall permissions they need. Some of this, Weiss said, could take six months or longer, although the Department of Buildings would have leeway to create an expedited process.

Even with all the obstacles, those in the know are finding reasons for optimism about the Mamdani administration’s ability to execute 2-Care.”

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