May 7, 2025
(4 Min. Read)
If you are looking to build/renovate/etc. housing or other infrastructure projects in NYC, it is likely/certain you will need to navigate NYC’s land use processes. This can be a time-intensive and byzantine process. Brown & Weinraub’s NYC team can shepherd your project, and help identify the best strategies for successful navigation of these processes. Below is a summary of what you might expect. Please contact us with any questions.
Historically, most land use projects would go through the Uniform Land Use Review Procedure (ULURP), a seven-month public review process. The 2025 Charter Revisions created a new process, an Expedited Land Use Review Procedure (ELURP), to allow a quicker review of certain land use actions. The ELURP review process will apply when modest increases in how much housing is allowed to be built (up to 30% in medium and high-density district) is requested, for acquisition and disposition of land to facilitate affordable housing, and to prepare the City for extreme weather or other future challenges.
The new process reduces review time, while maintaining Community Board and Borough President review, with final decision by the City Planning Commission. For most of these projects, this process removes final review by the City Council, except for dispositions of property that require council review by state law. ELURP includes a 60-day review period for the local Community Board and local Borough President, followed by a 30-day review and final decision by the City Planning Commission (CPC). The new review totals 90 days vs what used to be a seven-month review.
There are two new processes to fast-track certain affordable housing projects:
The first process creates a new action at the Board of Standards and Appeals (BSA) granting zoning changes for publicly financed affordable housing projects. Applicants can seek waivers of bulk, use or parking requirements provided that the site currently allows residential uses and the development could not move forward without the zoning modifications. This process would allow the Board of Standards and Appeals (BSA) to hear publicly financed affordable housing projects, after a 60-day review by the local Community Board and a 30-day review by the BSA. This would reduce the process down to as little as a 90 day review vs the 7 month ULURP process most projects would normally have to use.
The second process shortens the public review process of applications for affordable housing projects in the 12 community districts with the lowest rates of affordable housing development in the last five years. City Planning must identify these districts by October, 2026 with the new regulations going into effect in January, 2027. The methodology is subject to a rule making procedure that closed on April 1st.
As with ELURP, projects in the 12 districts will be subject to the Community Board and local Borough President review at the same time, followed by a 30 to 45-day review by the City Planning Commission (CPC). The CPC would have final approval instead of the City Council. City Council would no longer be involved in this public review process for qualified projects.
The new Affordable Housing Appeals Board is made up of the local Borough President, the Speaker of the City Council, and the Mayor. The Appeals Board can reverse City Council decisions on certain land use matters (qualifying affordable housing projects) with two affirmative votes. The affordable Housing Appeals Board with the Council Speaker, local Borough President, and Mayor can review Council actions that reject or change applications creating affordable housing. The process is in addition to the rarely used Mayor’s veto at the end of ULURP.
Previously, most affordable housing projects would go through ULURP, a seven-month review process, that ends in a final City Council vote. The Mayor had the power to veto this decision, and the City Council could overturn the veto by an affirmative vote of 2/3rds of the council.
The newly created Affordable Housing Appeals Board has the power to reverse the City Council’s decision. Unlike the Mayor’s veto, it cannot be overturned by a vote of 2/3rd of the City Council. The process broadly applies to any approval that facilitates the creation of affordable housing but was modified or disapproved by the City Council.
Written by Brown & Weinraub Senior Advisor Keith Tubbs. Contact Keith Here.
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