Faced with a severe housing shortage, New York City is exempting the construction of much new housing from the environmental review processes and taking many other steps to encourage such construction throughout the city. Several of these moves will also help the transition away from fossil fuels to renewable energy.

Context

Over 53% of the city’s residents are rent burdened, meaning they spend more than 30% of their income on rent. Vacancy rates for units costing less than $1,500 per month are below 1%. One city document declares, “Almost every hardship of the city housing market can be traced back to an acute shortage of housing. The housing shortage drives up prices for everyone.” Among the many factors that have inhibited the construction of new housing are the time-consuming and expensive City Environmental Quality Review (CEQR) rules and the Uniform Land Use Review Procedure (ULURP).