As New York City's residential construction boom intensifies, demand for school seats has surged. This scenario is playing out in parts of Brooklyn's Dumbo neighborhood, where a school rezoning controversy blew up this fall.

In a recent interview with WNYC, one of the city's most active real estate developers proposed a partial solution: require every builder to dedicate some lower floors to the community in exchange for adding extra floors on top. 

"Every building that gets built of any scale should have some kind of public facility on the second floor," said Jed Walentas, principal at Two Trees Management Company, the driving force behind Dumbo's transformation from a largely abandoned industrial area to a high-end residential and economic hub.

Two Trees agreed to build the core and shell of a middle school and a pre-k facility at its 293-unit luxury rental at 60 Water Street which it then sold to the city for $1. It was one piece of a contentious negotiation that also included the developer setting aside 20 percent, or 58, affordable apartments for low- and middle-income residents.

The project was financed with more than $100 million in New York State Housing Finance Agency bonds.

Affordable housing concessions are routine for projects like this one, where developers need a zoning allowance from the city in order to build taller. So it should be with schools, Walentas said.

"It would require the [Mayor Bill de Blasio] administration bending the zoning code, but they amend the zoning code all the time," he said. "Fifteen years ago in this city we had a notion that affordable housing and zoning had nothing to do with each other; today they're inextricably intertwined."

The mayor's office did not respond to a request for comment on the Walentas proposal. A Department of Education spokesman said in an email that school planners worked closely with developers, but on a case-by-case basis.