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Q&A
Designing and implementing a fair housing-based fast track for development
2:56:11
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114 sec
Commissioner Leila Bozorg asks Annemarie Gray about the complexities of linking a fast-track housing approval process to fair housing goals, specifically regarding setting and dynamically adjusting thresholds.
Gray acknowledges the complexity and the need for adjustments based on experience, similar to other states' 'builder's remedy' laws.
She explains Open New York chose to anchor their proposal to the city's recently passed Fair Housing Framework for legitimacy and relative simplicity compared to creating entirely new bodies or processes.
Leila Bozorg
2:56:11
I have one more question, if that's okay for Anne Marie.
2:56:14
I'm curious.
2:56:15
We've heard a lot about Build A Remedy and Fast Track ideas, I think a lot of them are really compelling.
2:56:20
The nexus with fair housing, have you all put thought into how there's a complexity there of kind of where you set that threshold, as Howard was talking about, and then how you track that threshold over time and have it be dynamics, because it is going to shift, and the percentages can change very easily with even just one project in neighborhoods that have had very little housing.
2:56:42
So have you all put thought into just what the right threshold should even be in a fair housing framework that has a fast track?
Annemarie Gray
2:56:50
Yeah.
2:56:51
There are a lot of ways to design this.
2:56:52
And frankly, every state that has implemented something like this, they've had to you know, go back and adjust it and figure out how it works or doesn't work.
2:56:59
And I do think we decided to latch on to the fair housing framework that just passed in the city council, frankly, partly because it's something that we all just passed, we all just agreed to, and I think that's a value set that, you know, help was very present in City of Yes, and this is a big follow-up.
2:57:13
So so one, I think that you need you need something that's legible.
2:57:16
You need something that has enough, like, popularity and the and the value is there.
2:57:19
I think exactly you know, that legislation hasn't fully gone into effect yet.
2:57:23
So I think there's a huge amount of work of of how you how you set that and what the threshold is, that frankly is gonna take some time to to, like and and going back and figuring out how it works or not.
2:57:33
But that as something to anchor to and a framework, I think one lesson learned actually from other states that have created a separate appeals process, a whole separate board, is that level of complexity, like, a whole new process to set targets, is very messy and isn't necessarily working very well.
2:57:50
The best we can do of using the tools that we have, using the EULAR process that we have and the fair housing framework that we have and trying to create something that is simple and then also that we can sort of correct for as we go is sort of just been the guiding principle with a lot of details to figure out still.