This November, voters in New York City will see charter revision proposals on their ballots. Four of these questions (Questions 2 through 5) are pertaining to affordable housing production and good planning practices.
This is RPA’s guide to this year’s Charter Revision proposals and why voters should say YES.
Ballot Question Text
Fast track publicly financed affordable housing. Fast track applications delivering affordable housing in the community districts that produce the least affordable housing, significantly reducing review time. Maintain Community Board review.
Voting “Yes” fast tracks applications at the Board of Standards and Appeals or City Planning Commission.
Voting “No” leaves affordable housing subject to longer review and final decision at City Council.
What it Means
The Commission is proposing a new process to make it faster and easier to create affordable housing, mostly through two mechanisms.
Ballot Question Text
Simplify review of modest amounts of additional housing and minor infrastructure projects, significantly reducing review time. Maintain Community Board review, with final decision by the City Planning Commission.
Voting “Yes” simplifies review for limited land-use changes, including modest housing and minor infrastructure projects.
Voting “No” leaves these changes subject to longer review, with final decision by City Council.
What it Means
The Commission proposes a simplified, expedited review process for modest land use changes, like small residential capacity increases or resiliency projects. The City currently uses ULURP — the Uniform Land Use Review Procedure — to approve or deny land use changes, but this process is used for projects both big and small.
Imagine your street is flooding continuously and requires a simple fix to stop the flooding. Because the process to elevate the street level is as long and complicated as the process to build an 80-story skyscraper, the project keeps getting delayed or even cancelled.
This proposal would allow three smaller categories of actions to use an expedited approval process: first, minor infrastructure projects, like the street elevation described above. Second, in lower-density districts, some smaller buildings that are no more than 4 stories tall. And third, in higher-density districts, projects that want to add no more than 30% more area than currently allowed.
The Expedited Land Use Review Procedure (ELURP) wouldn’t replace a review procedure outright and it wouldn’t make any projects “as of right.” Similar to the Affordable Housing Fast Track proposal in the previous question, the ELURP would retain community boards and borough president review and input. But it would cut public review time in half.
Why You Should Vote Yes
Removing the “one-size-fits-all” ULURP process creates a shorter and less expensive path for smaller projects to be built much more quickly.
Allowing for gentle density and the addition of much needed smaller developments that remain within the scale of the existing neighborhood would improve neighborhoods without dramatically altering them.
Ballot Question Text
Establish an Affordable Housing Appeals Board with the Council Speaker, local Borough President, and Mayor to review Council actions that reject or change applications creating affordable housing.
Voting “Yes” creates the three-member Affordable Housing Appeals Board to reflect Council, borough, and citywide perspectives.
Voting “No” leaves affordable housing subject to the Mayor’s veto and final decision by City Council.
What it Means
Currently, the City Council can vote down any projects coming through the ULURP process, including applications that would create affordable housing. The Commission proposes that the Mayor’s veto power be replaced with the Affordable Housing Appeals Board.
The Affordable Housing Appeals Board would consist of the Speaker of the City Council, the Mayor, and the Borough President of the affected borough. If two of the three members agree, the Board would be able to reverse City Council decisions that pertain to affordable housing creation.
Why You Should Vote Yes
This proposed Affordable Housing Appeals Board allows more elected officials to have a real voice in whether or not affordable housing projects are able to get done.
It would also allow for more affordable housing opportunities in more areas throughout the city - again, individual neighborhoods would have review and input but not a veto.
Ballot Question Text
Consolidate borough map office and address assignment functions, and create one digital City Map at Department of City Planning. Today, the City Map consists of paper maps across five Offices.
Voting “Yes” creates a consolidated, digital City Map.
Voting “No” leaves in place five separate map and address assignment functions, administered by Borough President Offices.
What it Means
The City Map refers to the legally defined locations of street lines and widths, street names, legal grades, and mapped parkland and public spaces, among other pieces of information.
Each borough has its own map with this information, but there is currently no centralized resource that has all these maps and this information in one space. The City Map today consists of over 8,000 individual paper maps.
The Commission is proposing that the City be required to consolidate the five borough maps into a comprehensive map by 2028. This measure would also require a digital version of a City Map be available.
