New York Construction Report staff writer
New York City has a new plan to address the affordable housing crisis and underlying housing shortage by rapidly accelerating the pace of housing construction, with a “moonshot” goal of building 500,000 new homes over the next decade.
A new report titled “Get Stuff Built” focuses on building housing faster, everywhere – across all five boroughs.
“We need more housing, and we need it as fast as we can build it,” said Mayor Eric Adams. “The system has been broken for so long that we have come to view it as our reality. Our city declared a housing emergency five decades ago, yet, we have failed to address it with the same urgency we would any other crisis. That ends now.
“We need to add hundreds of thousands of units to address the problem, and that is exactly what we are going to do. We are going to build faster, we are going to build everywhere, and we are going to build together.”
Adam estimates his plan will create 10,000 jobs; fund major new public and private investments, including by large health care institutions already in Morris Park; and as many as 6,000 new homes – at least 1,500 of which will be permanently affordable.
Public information meetings to support the environmental review process for this project are set for Dec. 13 and 15, and a public scoping meeting will be held Jan. 9, 2023. The project is set to be certified and begin the Uniform Land Use Review Procedure (ULURP). in summer 2023.
The report includes 111 actions to cut red tape, streamline processes, remove bureaucratic obstacles and lower the cost of development by accelerating project timelines by 50 percent, ensure environmental protection and meaningful public participation, and stimulate the creation of affordable housing across New York City.
Additionally, Mayor Adams formally kicked off the environmental review process to rezone the areas around two of the four new Metro-North train stations coming to the Bronx, with proposals to create thousands of new homes and family-sustaining jobs.
“The future prosperity of our city is dependent upon our collective ability to reform broken practices and replace the status quo with impactful and sustainable policies that reduce burdens and respond to the demand for a more efficient, effective, and equitable delivery of government services,” said Chief Efficiency Officer Melanie E. La Rocca. “These recommendations are a real step forward.”
