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TESTIMONY
Testimony by Amanda Farias, Majority Leader of the New York City Council, on ULURP and term limits
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7 min
Majority Leader Amanda Farias testifies on the importance of the City Council's role in the Uniform Land Use Review Procedure (ULURP).
She argues that ULURP empowers communities, particularly marginalized ones, and allows council members, who live in their districts, to mediate interests and secure community benefits, citing the Bronx Metro North plan as an example.
Farias contends that delays stem from pre-certification and financing issues, not council review, and opposes removing council oversight, suggesting instead improvements like community education and streamlining pre-ULURP processes.
She also advocates for extending council term limits to provide stability and continuity for long-term projects and effective governance.
Amanda Farias
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Good evening, commissioners.
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My name is Amanda Fadias, and I proudly serve as the majority leader of the New York City Council.
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And I get to represent District 18 in The Bronx.
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Thank you for the opportunity to testify today on the critical topic of housing and land use.
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New York City is facing a housing crisis that demands bold, smart solutions.
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As we consider changes to the charter, we must protect and strengthen the tools that allow communities to meaningfully shape their futures.
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Chief among them is the city council's role in the EULAR process.
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The charter gave the council land use authority to correct a long history of top down decisions that disenfranchise Black and brown communities, concentrated poverty, and deepened racial segregation.
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While we have made progress, our neighborhoods remain deeply unequal.
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Many communities, particularly in the Bronx, still lack access to affordable housing, public transit, and critical infrastructure.
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That is why local leadership must remain central to any conversation about land use.
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As council members, we are the closest level of government to the people.
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We don't just represent our neighborhoods.
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We live in them.
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We see firsthand the challenges our constituents face, and we are in the best position to balance the needs of developers, tenants, homeowners and businesses alike.
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That is what makes our role in the EULAR process so valuable.
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We help mediate divergent interests and forge compromises that make development possible while ensuring that our communities are not left behind.
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The results speak for themselves.
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Since 2022, this council has approved land use applications that will produce over 120,000 homes, including nearly 29,000 from private applications, more than half of which are affordable.
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That level of affordability would not have happened without council advocacy.
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Beyond housing, the council has secured billions, with a B, of dollars in public and private investments, from major neighborhood rezonings to community benefits like child care centers, job training and cultural spaces.
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An excellent example of the leverage that ULERP provides to local communities was the Bronx Metro North Area Neighborhood Plan that passed in the city council last summer.
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The project is slated to bring four new train stations to the East Bronx, including the RochesterVanna Station in my own community.
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Alongside a brand new train station, this project will bring housing, jobs, and other amenities.
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My office worked closely with council planning and land use to create multiple community engagement sessions where we had meaningful conversations with our neighbors.
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Through the community engagement in the EULAR process, we received what counsel would bring to the negotiating table, which enabled me to secure nearly $195,000,000 for District 18 alone in a nearly $500,000,000 deal with the city.
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Critical investments to address long standing infrastructure issues with upgrades can I have additional time?
Richard R. Buery Jr.
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Yeah.
Amanda Farias
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Thank you.
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Critical investments to address long standing infrastructure issues with upgrades for water management and flood prone areas, millions of dollars in renovations to our local playgrounds, upgrades to schools in the area, and a full study of the surrounding area for safer streets, and 2,000 units of new housing that includes open plaza concepts, community spaces, and capital upgrades for the existing Parkchester condominiums.
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Despite claims to the contrary, ULIP is not the bottleneck.
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The real delays happen in the precertification phase, where applications can sit for years in environmental review, a process over which the council has no control over.
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And even after ULURP, many approved projects wait years for HPD financing.
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If we want to speed up housing, we need to focus on fixing those parts of the pipeline, not gutting council oversight.
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Some argue that taking the council out of ULURP would depoliticize venues.
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But politics does not appear when you centralize power.
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It becomes less accountable.
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The mayor, borough presidents and agency heads are all political actors, too.
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Removing council members from this process would reduce transparency, silence local voices and concentrate powers in ways that risk further marginalizing working class communities.
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We have already seen this happen.
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For example, in 2022, there were 111 recommendations in the mayor's twenty twenty two Get Stuff Built report, which was a result in the building and land use approval streamlining task force.
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The council has not had an update from the mayor on those recommendations since 2023, including more than 20 improvements to the CEQR process, which is a notoriously cumbersome part of the precertification process.
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The administration could heed its own advice and recommendations in 2022 and make several meaningful changes to improve the building and land use approval process without significant changes to the charter.
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If we want to move this system, let's focus on real solutions.
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We should increase community education around land use, streamline the pre ULURP process to create more inclusive opportunities for housing insecure residents to participate in public review.
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We should also recognize that the loudest voices in these processes are not always the most representative and find ways to elevate those most in need of affordable housing.
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Charter reform should be about empowering communities, not disempowering them.
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It should reflect our shared values, equity, transparency and meaningful engagement.
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The city council's role in land use is essential to advancing those goals, and I urge you to preserve it.
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Lastly, I'd like to briefly speak to you about the importance of our communities and the continuity of their success in development, budgetary allocations, capital investments, and civic engagement.
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I know you've heard from one councilmember already on this, but extending New York City Council term limits to allow for a third term is necessary and timely change to the city charter, especially for the current legislative body.
0:11:52
As the city faces increasingly complex challenges from housing and climate resiliency to economic recovery and public safety, it's more important than ever to ensure continuity in leadership and governance.
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A third term would allow council members to see long term projects and community driven initiatives through to completion, providing much needed consistency and stability for constituency.
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When I entered the council, I had far too many stalled projects in schools, senior centers and local infrastructure, all with budget gaps that could not continue being implemented due to not being fully funded.
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Moreover, a longer legislative horizon strengthens the council's ability to serve as an effective check on the mayoral administration, offering a more balanced distribution of power and avoiding the destabilizing effect of concurrent mass turnover across branches of government.
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This is about good governance, accountability, and ensuring that progress isn't lost to term limits that work against the city's long term interests.
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This is about the stabilization of our institution.
0:12:51
I appreciate your time listening to my testimony and the extended time allotted to me.
0:12:55
Thank you.