YIMBY’s rejoice: New York City voters have made it a lot easier to build housing in the five boroughs.
With more than 75% of ballots counted, voters supported by a wide margin four ballot propositions meant to streamline the approval process and challenge the authority of the City Council when it comes to new residential development. The measures are meant to help New York City more quickly address a housing shortage that contributes to record-high rents and home prices, as well as a chronic homelessness crisis.
The ballot questions received backing from many high-level elected officials, including Gov. Kathy Hochul and outgoing city Comptroller Brad Lander, developers and pro-housing advocates who embraced an “Abundance” agenda. Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani only indicated his support when he announced that he voted in favor of the ballot initiatives on Election Day morning.
But the measures faced staunch opposition from other influential groups, including labor unions, civic associations, who argued that the changes would erode community input for new development. The City Council spent $2 million on mailers warning voters of the potential impact, though at least three members expressed their support on Monday and Tuesday.
Amit Singh Bagga, the director of a SuperPAC supporting the measures, cheered their passage in a statement Tuesday night.
“In a history-making move, New Yorkers have determined our own destinies by passing first-in-the-nation local reforms that will finally allow us to treat affordable housing as it should be in our nation: a basic right to which we must all have access,” Bagga said.
The newly approved measures could have an immediate impact on housing development in the city by simplifying a complicated, decades-old land use review process, especially for apartment buildings with units reserved for low- and middle-income tenants.
One of the approved measures will shorten the approval process for 100% affordable housing projects everywhere in the city and any new housing in neighborhoods producing the fewest new units. Another will shorten the review process for apartment and condo complexes slightly larger than existing rules allow.
A third will allow developers and city planners to file appeals with a newly created panel if the City Council rejects or modifies a land use application meant to build new housing. The panel will be made up of the mayor, City Council speaker and local borough president.
And a fourth measure tasks the city with digitizing its official paper maps for the purpose of streamlining rezoning proposals.
The four questions, along with another asking voters to approve an even-year election calendar that coincides with the U.S. presidential race, were drafted by a commission of mayoral appointees earlier this year.
Mayor Eric Adams empaneled the commission to propose changes to the city’s governing document, known as its charter, that could speed up the approval process for new housing development.
Charter Revision Commission Chair Richard Buery said the win showed New Yorkers were eager to address the city’s housing crisis.
“Today’s vote gives the city powerful new tools to build the affordable housing New Yorkers need and deserve,” said Buery, who runs the nonprofit Robin Hood Foundation.
“These proposals will make it faster and more efficient to build affordable housing in every neighborhood.“
