What Makes Housing Hard to Build in New York City

New York City's housing crisis has many causes, including the fact that new housing construction has fallen far behind the demand for homes. The Charter Revision Commission (CRC) is putting four proposals on the November ballot that will make it faster, easier, and less expensive to build affordable housing.

These changes would maintain community review and input while accelerating the approval process for smaller projects and reducing the risk that local politicians will be able to stop affordable developments that are important for achieving citywide housing goals.

The Charter Revision Commission has proposed amendments to the city's decision-making processes regarding housing and land use. Their recommendations include:

💻 Abbreviated ULURP: The city’s land use review process (ULURP) is long and difficult to navigate, especially for small housing projects that require very modest zoning changes. The Commission proposes an expedited process to enable more housing to be built at a lower cost.

🧱 Combat “NIMBY” Resistance: The current process allows local special interests to override the citywide goal to increase the supply of affordable housing. The Commission proposes an appeals process that allows the mayor, borough president, and City Council Speaker to reverse a City Council rejection of a project that can help meet affordable housing goals.

🏠 Unlock Public Land: Housing can be built far more cheaply when the city contributes land that it owns to the development. Currently, this requires a full ULURP process just to allow the city to turn over the land to a private or nonprofit developer. The Commission proposes that the contribution of public land should not trigger ULURP if the project is otherwise compliant with zoning requirements. 

The CRC says proposed Charter reforms are a necessary solution to the ongoing housing crisis, but other groups have raised concerns. For example, some New Yorkers are opposed to any new policy that would limit the City Council’s role in decisions on land use, particularly if that means the council member representing their neighborhood will have less power.

Explore the CRC’s preliminary report.