New York City adopts pro-housing Charter reforms

On November 4, New York City voters approved amendments to the City Charter that will create new opportunities for residential development. These amendments, proposed by Mayor Adams’ Charter Revision Commission, aim to fast track certain land use approvals for projects that would provide affordable housing. The revisions reduce the role of the City Council in the land use approval process by allowing certain applications to bypass, or proceed despite objection by, the City Council.

The Charter amendments include the following:

ULURP Appeals Board 

A new Appeals Board, consisting of the Mayor, the City Council Speaker, and the Borough President in the Borough affected by a proposed land use action, will have the power to override a City Council denial or modification of an application subject to the Uniform Land Use Review Procedure (ULURP), where the application facilitates the creation of affordable housing. This amendment reflects an attempt to do away with the tradition of “member deference” — deferring to the affected City Councilmember in local land use actions — that has often resulted in a single member having an effective veto over zoning changes. 

“Fast Track” for affordable housing

The “Fast Track” amendments include two new approval processes:

Expedited land use approvals in certain Community Districts

This amendment will allow a shortened ULURP process, with no City Council review, for land use actions in the 12 Community Districts with the lowest level of affordable housing production. Zoning applications that include permanent affordable housing under the Mandatory Inclusionary Housing program will be subject to a streamlined approval process with concurrent Community Board and Borough President review for 60 days, followed by a 30-day review by the City Planning Commission — or 45 days for applications that require an environmental impact statement. The City Planning Commission vote on these applications will be final, with no City Council review. 

Data on housing production will be analyzed by the Department of City Planning every five years, comparing the number of affordable housing units created during the period to the total housing supply in each District. Preliminary data indicate that Community Districts in the outer parts of Queens, Brooklyn, and Staten Island, and also those on the Upper West Side and Upper East Side of Manhattan, would be subject to this Fast Track process for the initial five-year period.

BSA approval for 100% affordable housing projects 

The Board of Standards and Appeals (BSA) will be empowered to grant waivers of use, bulk, or parking regulations for projects owned by companies organized exclusively to develop low-income housing (e.g., Housing Development Fund Corporations (HDFCs)). 

These applications will go to the local Community Board for a 60-day advisory review, followed by a BSA public hearing within 30 days, and a BSA decision within 30 days after that (which can be extended by 60 days in certain circumstances). The BSA will be required to make findings related to neighborhood character and the programmatic necessity of the zoning waivers.

Expedited ULURP for “modest” increases in housing capacity and resiliency infrastructure 

Land use approvals that result in an increase in housing capacity by up to 30% in medium- and high-density areas, or an increase in height to not more than 45 feet in lower-density areas, will be eligible for approval pursuant to an “expedited” land use review process, or “ELURP,” which will include a 60-day concurrent Community Board and Borough President review, followed by final approval by the City Planning Commission within 30 days. These applications will not be sent to the City Council for approval (except for those actions for which City Council approval is otherwise required, such as property dispositions to HDFCs).

Eligible actions could include rezonings, acquisitions and dispositions of City property, certain City Map changes related to affordable housing, and other actions. This expedited process would also apply to certain infrastructure and resiliency projects, such as property acquisitions and site selections or raising the grade of a street. A project that requires an environmental impact statement will still be subject to traditional ULURP review.

An abstract of the amendments created by the Charter Revision Commission, as well as the Commission’s final report on the proposed amendments, can be found here.

We invite you to contact HSF Kramer’s Land Use team to explore how these new Charter provisions could help to advance your project.