City lawmakers are racing to stop Gotham’s post-COVID economic recovery in its tracks, by pushing the same kind of rent regulation for commercial property that has locked the city’s residential housing into an eternal “crisis.”

At a hearing Friday, the City Council will take up a pair of wildly destructive bills — one to create a “commercial rent guidelines board” that would set annual rent hikes for stores and offices under 10,000 square feet and manufacturers under 25,000 square feet and another to grant automatic one-year lease extensions at a commercial tenant’s request.

The most efficient market, of course, is one that’s allowed to adapt on its own, without government meddling: When pols get involved and set artificial rents, it creates all kinds of perverse, unintended consequences.

Example: Though meant to protect small businesses, rent regulation could actually hurt them because large businesses (think Starbucks or big-bank branches) often take small spaces. These companies would be more desirable tenants than less financially secure mom-and-pops, especially if rent hikes are to be capped.

Commercial landlords might even put off renting to anyone until the economy grows hotter, knowing their rents could be largely frozen by the panel, whose members would be chosen by the mayor.

What a time for such insanity: The pandemic and lockdowns forced many businesses to close, leaving storefronts vacant and rents down. Indeed, it’s a tenants’ market: In June, the Real Estate Board of New York reported that asking rents for retail space plunged in 16 of 17 sections of Manhattan, some by as much as 37 percent.

“There’s never a good time for legislation like this, but commercial real estate in this city is in a particularly precarious position right now,” notes East Midtown Partnership President Rob Byrnes. The bills are “driven by a view of the real-estate industry that is almost completely divorced from reality.”

“What COVID-19 didn’t accomplish in undermining our retail and real-estate sectors over the past 18 months, these legislative initiatives will,” fears Grand Central Partnership head Fred Cerullo.

Sure, small businesses could use help, and there are many smart ways to help them — like ending the commercial rent tax and mandates like paid leave and the $15 minimum wage.

But New York pols are often lured instead by simple-minded, socialist-style prescriptions like rent control that only make matters worse. Cross your fingers they come to their senses and nix these bills pronto.