NYC Unveils Reforms To Slash Housing Development Timelines

In an effort to tackle the housing crisis, the Mamdani administration released a set of recommendations that would overhaul every part of the development process and could cut years off of schedules. 

The 36-page report, published Wednesday, was created by the Streamlining Procedures to Expedite Equitable Development task force, referred to as SPEED. The group was formed on Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s first day in office and has since met with more than 100 industry experts, advocates, developers, builders and trade organizations, according to the city’s announcement of the report.

The changes are expected to reduce timelines for all affordable housing projects by eight months. For those that require a zoning change, the reforms may shorten the process by up to two years.

“These delays are not inevitable. They are the result of broken systems and a failure of political will,” Mamdani said in a statement. “New Yorkers cannot afford to wait years for affordable housing while projects sit trapped in bureaucracy. SPEED is about making government deliver – faster, fairer and at the scale this crisis demands.” 

In addition to cutting red tape, the report lays out the need for increased staffing at nearly every agency that touches real estate, as well as tech upgrades, such as a centralized permitting website.

None of the reforms requires legislative action or changes the city’s discretionary approval process for projects.

The recommendations were praised by industry groups that said they have repeatedly seen projects killed by the city’s Uniform Land Use Review Procedure and other bureaucratic demands. 

Since 2022, the city has lost more than 3,500 proposed apartments, nearly 1,000 of which would have been income-restricted, after projects were downsized or withdrawn due to the public review process, Open New York Executive Director Annemarie Gray wrote in September.

“The City’s SPEED initiative is a smart and necessary step forward, and we commend the Mamdani administration for taking action to cut red tape, modernize outdated building requirements, and improve how city agencies operate,” Real Estate Board of New York President James Whelan said in a statement.

New York Building Congress President and CEO Carlo Scissura highlighted that streamlining processes will help lower costs for building industry professionals and the public generally. 

“We applaud Mayor Mamdani and his team for focusing on the nuts and bolts of housing production,” Scissura said in a statement. 

Here is what the SPEED task force proposes in its report: 

Environmental Review And Planning 

As part of the state budget, Gov. Kathy Hochul proposed reforms to the State Environmental Quality Review Act, allowing certain housing projects to bypass the review process. A government study found that out of the thousand developments that have undergone SEQRA review, “virtually none” had significant environmental impacts. Nonetheless, the review adds an average of two years to the construction process. 

The SPEED task force backed Hochul’s proposal. It also recommended that the city create a new online pathway for streamlined review and increased access to transportation data.

Additionally, the group suggested that the city modernize the way it analyzes traffic, parking, air quality and construction on a neighborhood level. 

Predevelopment And Financing

The majority of 100% affordable housing projects receive subsidies from the Department of Housing Preservation and Development, meaning any delays cost developers as well as the taxpayers. 

To reduce the wait time for funding, the task force instructed the city to create a new team within HPD and the Mayor’s Office to coordinate approvals. HPD-subsidized new construction projects on city-owned land would also receive a project advocate from the Department of Buildings to navigate permitting processes.

More generally, the report suggests linking back-end data within permitting portals scattered across agencies. Doing so would provide applicants with metrics on timing and queue length.

Permitting And Approvals

Permitting a project can require approvals from up to 15 city agencies and take an average of 16 months, according to the report. 

The task force found that the Department of Environmental Protection’s Stormwater Pollution Prevention Plan process consumes a large portion of that timeline. Although it is supposed to take 45 days for review, it actually requires five to seven months. 

The report recommends that the city redefine which projects may be subject to the process and create a way for initial construction permits to be issued for limited preliminary development. 

Office-to-residential projects, which have surged in popularity, have put a strain on the city’s Asbestos Technical Review Unit. The team consists of just seven reviewers, but applications have nearly doubled since 2010, peaking at almost 14,000 applications in 2023, according to the report.

SPEED recommended that the city increase staffing by 50%, which would reduce the time for review and approval of permits by an estimated two months. 

The DEP can provide a six-month relief from the Asbestos Control Program, after which applicants must stop work and renew applications. The report advises that the window be increased to last one year.

Following construction, projects must undergo fire alarm inspection and emergency plan review. That can include a 12-week wait time for initial review. To address the backlog, the task force said the city should increase staffing and establish a third-party testing procedure that the Fire Department can sign off on. 

Lease-Up

New York City’s affordable housing lottery and homelessness placement systems are overwhelmed by applications but are notoriously slow to move residents into available units. The median time to complete applicant approvals for lottery projects is 210 days, according to the report.

SPEED suggested a variety of short-term and long-term solutions for the system. 

Immediate changes include shortening the lottery application period from 60 to 21 days, simplifying income verification, piloting a new homeless lease-up program to directly connect landlords with shelter providers, and expediting or eliminating duplicative apartment inspections.

In the long term, the city would create a way to verify income via government systems instead of applicant documents, expand electronic fund transfers for rental payment subsidies, create a way for applicants to prioritize or opt out of certain building lotteries, revise the appeals process, and create a new reinspection protocol that would allow minor repairs to be cleared virtually.