New York Construction Report staff writer
The next phase of New York’s long-term housing plan will focus on increasing supply in New York City, Gov. Kathy Hochul said in her State of the State address this week. As a result, thousands of new housing units are expected to be built on state-owned land this year.
A four-part proposal has been released, incentivizing construction of new housing, including affordable housing; encouraging affordable in office conversion projects; allowing increased residential density on certain projects; and legalizing basement and cellar apartments.
“Here in New York City, we’ve established a moonshot goal of building 500,000 new homes by 2033, and we’ve made or introduced nearly every change in our power to ‘Get Stuff Built’ and ensure that all New Yorkers can afford to live here,” said New York City Mayor Eric Adams. “We’re becoming a ‘City of Yes’ — yes to building on my block, yes to building in my neighborhood, yes to building in my community — but we can’t do it alone.
“With Governor Hochul’s support, we’re confident that our lawmakers will also say yes to the legislation that our city needs to address our housing crisis with the urgency New Yorkers demand.”
The city will create a $500 million capital fund to support development of up to 15,000 units of housing on state-owned land and strengthen the Pro-Housing Communities program by making certification a requirement for accessing $650 million in state discretionary funding.
As part of a package of executive actions aimed at increasing New York’s housing supply statewide, Hochul signed Executive Order 30 in July 2023 mandating that all State entities review lands in their ownership and control to determine whether they could be used to build or support new housing.
State agencies have identified publicly owned sites across New York State that could accommodate up to 15,000 new units of housing, including former correctional facilities, areas near commuter rail stations, and SUNY properties.
Also, with a goal of ensuring clean energy is affordable, Hochul announced the following steps:
- Introducing legislation to support responsible, equitable and effective gas system transition planning
- Introducing legislation to create a one-stop-shop for the environmental review and permitting of major renewable energy and transmission facilities
- Launching Statewide Solar for All initiative to deliver an electric bill credit of $40 per year to more than 800,000 households
Also, a comprehensive “resiliency plan” includes:
- Making homes more resilient, expanding voluntary buyout programs and directing the Codes Counsel to overhaul building codes design
- Protecting communities through major investments in statewide disaster response and equipping localities with new tools
- Responding to extreme heat through funding for cooling capacity at schools and supplying air conditioners to medically vulnerable New Yorkers
- Repairing aging infrastructure and making State agencies more sustainable and climate resilient
Also expected in 2024 is the expansion of the Second Avenue Subway to Broadway and moving forward to the engineering phase of the Interborough Express.
