Unlock New York’s Future Now Has 39 Member Orgs from Across the State
Albany, NY - Unlock New York’s Future today announced the addition of five new organizations to the statewide coalition urging the New York State Legislature to modernize the State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQRA) as part of the FY 2026–27 budget. This brings the number of organizations to 39. The newly joining members are:
Association for a Better Long Island
Riders Alliance
Housing Rights Initiative
Welcome Home Westchester
Long Island Homeless Continuum of Care Legislative Committee
Annemarie Gray, Executive Director of Open New York: “Unlock New York’s future is growing because these organizations from all over New York know that if we want to lower costs, reduce emissions, improve transit, and increase housing, we need to modernize SEQRA. Whether you are in Westchester, Long Island, New York City, the Capitol Region, Western New York, or the North Country, New Yorkers across the state know that this reform will accelerate climate action, expand economic opportunity, and deliver real benefits to families in every region of the state. Our coalition is only growing, and we look forward to working with our partners in the state legislature to make this happen.”
Kate Slevin, Executive Vice President of Regional Plan Association:
“The growing momentum behind Unlock New York’s Future reflects a clear and shared understanding across the state: if we are serious about lowering housing costs, cutting emissions, and expanding economic opportunity, we must modernize SEQRA.
Modernizing SEQRA is about aligning environmental review with today’s urgent needs– housing supply, resilient infrastructure, and smart, transit-oriented growth. Done right, this reform will help the New York metro region be affordable for families while fighting sprawl. We look forward to working with our coalition partners to help make this a reality.”
Kyle Strober, Executive Director, Association for a Better Long Island, said, “This is a significant update for the New York economic development community. One of the biggest hurdles that economic development projects face is unpredictable timelines and prohibitive soft costs for small to mid-sized projects. These reforms, proposed by Governor Hochul, will help spur economic development, create housing, and help make New York more affordable.”
The coalition, a broad group of housing, environmental, transit, community development, business, and civic organizations, is calling for SEQRA reforms that reduce unnecessary procedural delays while preserving strong environmental protections, support attainable housing, speed clean‑energy and transit projects, and prevent hold-ups that delay community priorities.
SEQRA, a law written over 50 years ago, is now a bottleneck that delays and blocks the housing, clean‑energy, transit, and infrastructure projects New Yorkers need. In fact, its broad rules let a single opponent tie projects up in court for years, driving up costs, rents, and utility bills while slowing climate action. Although intended to protect the environment, SEQRA today often prevents building rooftop solar, energy‑efficient housing near transit, rail modernization, and critical road, bridge, and school repairs, outsized legal hurdles that benefit a few wealthy opponents at the expense of communities.
SEQRA reform is very popular, according to recent polling:
New Yorkers overwhelmingly support reforming SEQRA. Voters view SEQRA reform as critical to addressing the affordability crisis. They believe that too much red tape is holding New York back from making the improvements the state needs, including building affordable housing, upgrading roads and bridges, and getting clean energy projects off the ground to lower their utility bills.
SEQRA reform will address all of the top issues voters believe New York is facing. New York voters say that the top issues facing the state are increasing utility bills (78% major problem), the housing affordability crisis (72%), too much bureaucracy and red tape (62%), and aging infrastructure like roads, bridges, and highways (62%). All of these can be addressed by reforming SEQRA’s outdated rules and mandates.
Majorities want to make it easier to build several types of projects, all of which can be accomplished with SEQRA reform. Affordable housing, upgrades to roads and bridges, public transit and commuter rail upgrades, and clean energy infrastructure are the top examples of projects voters across New York say should be easier to build.
Support for SEQRA reform transcends partisan and geographical lines. When voters are given a short description of SEQRA reform, more than three in five support it. Support is high up and downstate and across partisan lines, with nearly three-quarters of voters in New York City supportive and majorities supportive in the suburbs and upstate.
Both Governor Hochul and state legislators stand to benefit from supporting SEQRA reform. Fifty-seven percent of voters say they would be more favorable to the Governor if she signed SEQRA reform into law, including over half of independents. And majorities say they would be more likely to vote for a state legislator who supports SEQRA reform.
Unlock New York’s Future had announced previously:
American Institute of Architects New York (AIANY)
Association for a Better Long Island
The Building & Realty Institute of the Hudson Valley
Catskill Center for Conservation and Development
Climate Changemakers Brooklyn
CNY Fair Housing
Citizens Budget Commission
Citizens Housing & Planning Council
Community Preservation Corporation
Effective Transit Alliance
Enterprise Community Partners
Habitat for Humanity NYC and Westchester County
Habitat for Humanity of New York State (Habitat for Humanity NYS)
Hudson River Housing
Lantern Organization
Leadership Now Project
Long Island Association
Long Island Builders Institute
Long Island Housing Coalition
Long Island Housing Services, Inc.
New York Building Congress
New York Housing Conference
New York State Association for Affordable Housing (NYSAFAH)
New York State Builders Association
Open New York
Partnership for New York City
Permanent Citizens Advisory Committee to the MTA (PCAC)
Queens Economic Development Corporation
Regional Plan Association
Responsive Government Action
Riders Alliance
True North Realty Associates, LLC
Westchester County Association
Westhab
