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Q&A
Kirk Goodrich explains how ULURP and member deference deter housing development in resistant neighborhoods
0:45:46
·
3 min
Commissioner Leila Bozorg asks developer Kirk Goodrich how the land use process, particularly ULURP and member deference, affects which projects even get proposed, highlighting the hidden opportunity cost.
Goodrich explains that developers often won't even attempt projects in neighborhoods known for strong opposition and likely council member resistance, regardless of land availability, due to the high risk, time, and cost involved.
This self-censorship funnels development towards "paths of least resistance," often in lower-income communities, exacerbating fair housing issues and ultimately proving unsustainable.
- The current land use process, especially member deference, leads developers to avoid proposing projects in certain boroughs or neighborhoods known for opposition.
- This represents a significant, unquantifiable loss of potential housing development (opportunity cost).
- This avoidance concentrates development in fewer, often lower-income, areas, raising fair housing concerns and straining those communities' capacity.
- Goodrich argues this dynamic necessitates dramatic changes to the land use approval system.
Leila Bozorg
0:45:46
Thanks.
0:45:47
Thanks for sharing your story, Marjorie.
0:45:49
Kirk, can you talk a little bit about just the decision making process as you're going out looking for projects?
0:45:54
We've heard a lot.
0:45:55
We had at the last hearing, we heard someone say, ULURP's not the problem.
0:45:57
It's only seven months, sometimes nine months, and that it itself isn't the problem.
0:46:02
There's other problems, and it's not ULIP.
0:46:05
So can you talk about and I think we have a very hard time quantifying the lost opportunity given what the experience is in our land use process.
0:46:13
So can you just talk a little bit about how our land use process actually impacts what even gets off the ground or is conceived of?
Kirk Goodrich
0:46:19
That's a great question, Layla.
0:46:22
So what I was saying to somebody the other day is the impact of member deference means that there are certain projects we won't even undertake.
0:46:31
So my colleagues and I in the development world, we get a steady flow of setups on vacant land and other things.
0:46:42
But for this purpose, we'll say vacant land.
0:46:45
And then you have a decision to make about whether you're going to try for an entitlement in those locations.
0:46:52
And I could just tell you, without mentioning specific neighborhoods, all of which are off the top of my head, that there are many neighborhoods we all know in the city, especially in certain boroughs, where you already know that you're not going to get councilmanic support for an entitlement.
0:47:14
And so those situations will never even be brought forward.
0:47:20
So there's some number of rezonings that no one ever initiates because we don't believe they'll be successful.
0:47:31
Or we could get to a point where we spent a year or two or three, and it will fail.
0:47:39
And so those communities have done an excellent job of getting what they want, meaning they've created such a resistance that we already know we don't want to go there.
0:47:52
I think the correct analogy after Brown versus Board of Ed was those communities who were able to make integration of people of color into their schools so unpleasant that folks I'm not sending my kids there.
0:48:10
And it dragged out the process for integration of public schools.
0:48:16
It's exactly the same thing.
0:48:18
That that there are certain neighborhoods where you know they're not gonna allow not only affordable multifamily, any multifamily.
0:48:26
And as a developer, you're a business person.
0:48:28
So you've got a decision to make.
0:48:29
Are you going to make a principal stand and lose time and money?
0:48:34
Or are you gonna go to the path of least resistance in poor neighborhoods where the electeds have been more receptive?
0:48:41
And that's what we all do.
0:48:43
But that fundamentally doesn't work because it's a fair housing problem and because there we've gotten to a place where those neighborhoods can no longer accommodate the volume of affordable housing we need.
0:48:57
So that no longer works.
0:48:59
And so from my perspective, we need a dramatic change.
0:49:03
And those are some examples.