Adams set to unveil sweeping plan to speed up development amid housing crunch

NEW YORK — Mayor Eric Adams has focused much of his energy on public safety, as other crises receiving less attention have deepened. Now, as his first year in office draws to a close, Adams is ready to take aim at one of the largest problems escalating across the city: An acute housing shortage that has driven up the cost of renting and buying a home.

Adams plans to announce as early as Thursday a set of over 100 reforms designed to ease development by minimizing regulations, modernizing arcane rules and trimming costs for builders, according to a summary of the proposals obtained by POLITICO. The overhaul could generate some 50,000 additional homes over the next decade, according to officials involved in the plan.

One of the more significant reforms entails eliminating mandatory assessments of a project’s potential impact for those buildings with fewer than 200 new units. The change, which POLITICO first reported, could be made without approval from the City Council, said city officials who worked on the plan and would only speak on the condition of anonymity to freely discuss a matter under review.

The Council would, however, be called upon to bring another substantial change to fruition: Rewriting portions of the city’s building code to address structures erected before current laws were put into effect, the officials said. The Council — comprising 51 politicians who often face suspicion from constituents about developers — are not guaranteed to support the changes that require their input.

The initiatives were generated by a city task force dubbed BLAST that Adams announced in June, and they are his answer to a national conundrum that is magnified in the nation’s largest city: New Yorkers of all ages, ethnicities and incomes are facing a steep rise in purchase and rental costs, coupled by a drop in sales. During Adams' first six months in office, city-financed housing production dropped dramatically.

The changes would bring faster relief to developers — an oft-maligned industry that Adams has embraced in his political career — than to tenants. A board controlled by the mayor dealt the highest increase to rent-stabilized tenants in nearly a decade this year. But the mayor and his team believe the overhaul they’re proposing will ultimately help renters by creating more homes and thereby lowering costs.

The current environmental review and land use approval processes increase monthly rents by roughly $430 for the average apartment, according to the summary.

“Some builders simply avoid New York City altogether or won’t pursue zoning changes because they are too costly and risky,” officials wrote a summary of the upcoming announcement. “Delays in building or loss of projects altogether further slow gains for small businesses, job creation, and our economic recovery.”

The plan calls for 111 reforms to the city’s labyrinth zoning and building approval process, 14 of which will require Council approval. Another two will need action from state agencies, and the administration can implement the remaining 95 on its own.

One person with direct knowledge of the matter, who would only speak on background to avoid openly discussing a pending announcement, predicted this would further the tension between the mayor and the lawmaking body.

“The mayor can’t just say something that has the appearance of substance when there is zero evidence of substance or real collaboration with the governor or City Council,” the person said, referencing what was perceived as inadequate briefings of city and state officials this week. “Making an announcement about state agency changes and city legislation without conducting any kind of real deliberations with Albany or the City Council only demonstrates that he only cares about saying ‘Getting Stuff Done’ without actually practicing it.”

City Hall officials said as of late Wednesday they had briefed at least 70 interested parties on the plan.

Officials say the changes would save about $2.5 billion annually, translating into some 50,000 additional homes over the next ten years.

One initiative would fast-track smaller-scale land use applications, allowing those proposals to skip certain paperwork requirements and other early steps in the review process.

The suite of reforms would also allow residential projects with fewer than 200 units to bypass lengthy reviews that determine what impact they might have on things like traffic, open space and local schools. These studies can add seven months and $100,000 to individual projects — time and money officials say the city can’t afford to waste during a severe housing shortage.

Yet another proposal would allow homeowners to pursue renovations to their kitchens or bathrooms without having to submit a professional plan filing that needs review by the Department of Buildings — a move that would free up agency staff to attend to more pressing projects, officials said.

The proposal to update the city’s building code would create a new set of rules for older structures to clarify how owners should approach upgrades — easing the process around office-to-residential conversions, for example, or making aging properties more energy efficient.