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TESTIMONY
Testimony by Annemarie Gray from Open New York advocating a fast track for fair housing
2:42:54
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3 min
Annemarie Gray, Executive Director of Open New York, testifies that member deference in land use decisions hinders housing production and deepens segregation.
Open New York's top recommendation is a "Fast Track for Fair Housing": an expedited approval process (e.g., ending review at the City Planning Commission) for housing proposals in transit-rich, low-growth neighborhoods that align with fair housing goals.
This would remove the local council member's ability to block such projects, speeding up the entire process including pre-ULURP negotiations.
Annemarie Gray
2:42:54
Hello.
2:42:54
Good evening.
2:42:55
My name is Ann Marie Gray.
2:42:56
I'm the executive director of Open New York.
2:42:58
We're an independent grassroots pro housing nonprofit with hundreds of volunteer members across the state.
2:43:04
I also spent nearly a decade in government in city government before this, many of them very deep in the EULAR process, especially focused on how to build housing in some of the most exclusive neighborhoods.
2:43:13
Also, this is important enough that I'm back here to testify again for a second time on on our on our top priority issue.
2:43:19
So as has been talked about a lot tonight, right now, we have a land use decision making process that prefers the hyperlocal, preferences the hyper local, and the effects of our dire housing shortage are citywide.
2:43:30
And so as been discussed in every attempt to build new homes in the last years, city council has deferred to the local council member, giving them near absolute power, to block and delay new homes.
2:43:42
This drives up costs for all New Yorkers, and deepens patterns of, segregation and exclusion.
2:43:49
Reminder that new housing is concentrated in so few neighborhoods that in 2024, only 10 community districts added as much new housing as the other 49 combined.
2:43:58
So back in February, Open New York released a policy brief called titled a charter for housing equity, five reforms for a fairer, more affordable New York City, which I encourage everyone to read in full.
2:44:08
But today, I'm just gonna focus on our top priority recommendation to address this particular issue of member deference, which is create a fast track for fair housing.
2:44:16
So we need an approval track for proposals that would advance fair housing in our most transit rich, climate resilient, and low growth neighborhoods.
2:44:24
They often are also the neighborhoods that are the whitest and the wealthiest, in line with the implementation of this of speaker Adams' fair housing framework to actually give it real accountability, teeth, and enforcement.
2:44:36
In these well resourced neighborhoods, we must fast track approvals to remove the ability for local council members to block new homes, which they continually do.
2:44:44
For example, new new proposals in these neighborhoods could finish the land use review process at the city planning commission.
2:44:50
There could potentially be a vote be a representative from city council on this, you know, on the CPC for this process.
2:44:59
What is most crucial there are lot of different ways to design this.
2:45:02
What is most crucial is that council members representing these districts would no longer have the ability to block new proposals.
2:45:08
Something that's come up a bit tonight is how to you know, how you speed up the entire process, not just the actual ULURP clock.
2:45:15
And I do wanna definitely note that a huge amount of time is spent trying to game out the hyperlocal politics in advance, because that's the only path.
2:45:23
So this would speed up the entire process even before the official clock starts.
2:45:27
a lot of these reforms are really common in other states.
2:45:32
They often happen at the statewide level known as builders remedies.
2:45:36
Albany has not acted, and so New York is very far behind.
2:45:39
But a charter commission is an actual way you can really embrace this.
2:45:42
And there are a lot of ways to design this really smartly.
2:45:45
We're eager to continue to work with you all on these ideas.
2:45:48
And this is a really, really rare chance to really tackle this, and the stakes are really high.
2:45:52
Thank you.
Keri Butler
2:45:27
So