A panel of civic leaders may ask New York City voters to approve major changes to the city’s land-use process that could fast-track certain projects and weaken City Council members’ ability to veto developments in their districts. The panel is also looking at election reforms such as nonpartisan primaries.
The proposals were laid out in a highly anticipated 104-page report released Wednesday by the Charter Revision Commission, a 13-member group that Mayor Eric Adams convened late last year to consider reforms to the city’s governing document. Although initially focused on easing the city’s housing crisis, the commission broadened its scope after hearing testimony from hundreds of people to include reforms tackling climate policy and the city’s flawed contracting system.
After another set of hearings this summer, the commission’s staff will narrow these initial ideas down to a final set of proposals which, if approved by the panel, will appear on the November general election ballot. The group is legally independent from City Hall and stacked with respected professionals — though critics still suspect Adams had political motives when he formed the commission, which blocked his rivals on the City Council from putting their own questions before voters on the ballot this year.
On housing, the preliminary ideas released Wednesday take aim at the city’s seven-month Uniform Land Use Review Procedure that governs land-use changes. ULURP gives final authority to the City Council and is so time-consuming that it deters developers from proposing projects unless they are big enough to be worth the cost.
The commission will consider a “fast-track” review for modest projects that could exempt small or affordable developments from ULURP. Also on the table is streamlining ULURP by consolidating the back-to-back monthlong reviews by community boards and borough presidents into a single month, or by giving a final say to borough presidents, rather than the council, on certain projects.
Another idea would give teeth to the fair housing framework championed by Council Speaker Adrienne Adams last year, which will set growth targets for each neighborhood; the framework currently lacks any mechanism for enforcing its goals. Charter changes could fast-track projects in districts that are failing to meet housing goals.
Changing ULURP could be politically perilous — City Council leaders and neighborhood groups might object to any proposals that limit their authority on land use, although the Charter Commission could try to pacify Speaker Adams by arguing that they want to strengthen her own fair-housing law. (The council did not immediately comment on the report.)
If enacted, the reforms would chip away at the City Council’s “member deference” policy that allows members to reject projects in their districts — an unwritten rule that nonetheless took off after New York’s 1989 charter reforms enshrined the council’s final say. In its report on Wednesday, the commission said it was inspired by testimony it heard, including from Brooklyn-based Monadnock Development President Kirk Goodrich, who said he often rules out rezonings on certain sites based on who the local council member is.
“Member deference puts council members in an awful position that makes it impossible to approve housing projects that they know are desperately needed,” Alec Schierenbeck, the commission’s executive director, told Crain’s on Thursday. He said commission staff had spoken in recent months to council members who “explained that they would love to support housing projects, if only they could politically.”
Other possible housing reforms include letting developers appeal a no-vote by the City Council to some new body that would include the mayor and local borough president — or letting the City Planning Commission override council actions by a supermajority vote.
The commission’s initial housing ideas mostly resemble the ideas floated by policy groups such as the Citizens Housing and Planning Council, Open New York and the Citizens Budget Commission, who sprang at the rare chance to change the City Charter by pushing the commission to make big changes.
The panel is chaired by Richard Buery, CEO of the charity Robin Hood and a former deputy mayor under Bill de Blasio. Buery has taken pains to emphasize the group’s independence from Mayor Adams, including by publicly rejecting the idea that it might consider changing the city’s sanctuary laws that limit cooperation with federal immigration authorities.
“This preliminary staff report is an ambitious document that presents proposals to ensure that New York City remains an engine of opportunity, prioritizing inclusivity for all New Yorkers, especially as we seek to make housing more accessible and affordable across all five boroughs,” Buery said in a statement Wednesday.
Beyond housing, the commission said it might propose major shakeups to the city’s elections, including nonpartisan, “open” primaries and shifting elections to even-numbered years to boost turnout. Those reforms, proposed by good-government groups such as Citizens Union, are geared toward improving New York’s relatively dismal participation in local elections — with just 23% of registered voters casting ballots in the 2021 general election.
Nonpartisan elections would let voters cast ballots for any candidate in the primary, then allow some subset of finishers — potentially the top two, of any party — to advance to the general election. Similar systems are in place in California, Washington and many cities — although the commission noted that New York City voters rejected a top-two open-primary system in 2003, based partly on fears that it would help wealthy candidates and disadvantage candidates of color.
Shifting elections to even years would almost certainly boost turnout by aligning them with presidential or statewide contests, although that move would likely require a new state law in addition to the charter change.
Meanwhile, the commission wants to tackle the city’s chronically late payments to its nonprofit vendors — potentially by enshrining the Mayor’s Office of Contract Services in the City Charter, requiring the city to pay interest on late payments, or setting out mandated timeframes for processing contracts.
On climate, finally, the commission may propose making it easier for the city to offer voluntary buyouts to homeowners in flood zones. While city acquisitions of private property currently need to pass through ULURP, the commission suggested exempting flood buyouts from the process. It is also considering changes that could ease the placement of electric vehicle chargers on streets and sidewalks.
Members of the commission include former City Planning directors Anita Laremont and Carl Weisbrod; Partnership for New York City President and CEO Kathryn Wylde; Tech:NYC CEO Julie Samuels; and YMCA of Greater New York President Sharon Greenberger. That makeup has helped the commission enjoy greater credibility compared to Adams’ first Charter Revision Commission last year, which was dominated by longtime loyalists and also appeared designed to block the City Council — although voters still approved most of the small-scale recommendations that emerged from that panel.
