Your guide to NYC's public proceedings.
Q&A
The impact of uncertainty in the land use process on housing costs
2:50:44
·
117 sec
Commissioner Leila Bozorg asks Michelle de la Uz how the land use process contributes to the rising cost of affordable housing, noting that increased city budgets haven't proportionally increased output.
De la Uz identifies increased uncertainty as a primary driver of costs and delays.
This includes uncertainty about material costs, supply chains (especially post-COVID), interest rates, and crucially, the political uncertainty surrounding final project approval after significant investment in planning.
Leila Bozorg
2:50:44
I have a question.
2:50:46
First, thank you both for all of your work in housing and all of your service.
2:50:51
Michelle, I'm curious, you just have so much experience from a range of positions on trying to get affordable housing built in costly neighborhoods and over time.
2:51:04
I'm curious if you could speak to how you see our land use process adding to the costs and challenges of building, because you've also negotiated a lot of CBACB community benefit agreements outside of ULURP, so it doesn't necessarily require ULURP always for communities to get what they want.
2:51:21
But but we also you as you know, the city's housing budget has grown over time, which is great.
2:51:27
But what we've been able to do with that budget has not grown as equally because of how costly projects have become.
2:51:33
And folks have talked about the pipeline and the backlog, which is partly because we don't have the right number of resources to actually build as much as we should.
2:51:41
So we're able to do not as much while even though our budget keeps growing, right, because of how expensive projects have become.
2:51:50
So could you just speak a little bit to what you see as the driving cost increases over the past handful of years?
2:51:56
How much is that due to the land use process?
2:51:58
How much of it is just due to building costs?
2:52:00
Like because it really has become an exponential growth.
Annemarie Gray
2:52:04
Yes.
2:52:04
I mean, I think a lot of
Michelle de la Uz
2:52:07
it just has to do with uncertainty, right?
2:52:09
Whether it's uncertainty of the cost of materials, uncertainty, you know, over the especially since COVID with supply chain issues.
2:52:17
You know, we you guys have certainly mentioned a number of times the uncertainty of whether or not an elected official at the end is going to approve a project that where someone has spent hundreds of thousands, if not millions of dollars during the planning process.
2:52:31
So I think a lot of it has increased uncertainty, the whole uncertainty with interest rates.
2:52:37
All of those things together have added to the increased costs for sure.