Relates to urban development action areas

Summary of specific provisions

Existing provisions of Article 16 of the General Municipal law authorize expedited land use review under Urban Development Action Area Project (UDAAP) for projects to rehabili- tate existing residential buildings or to construct one- to four-unit dwellings. This bill would expand this expedited land use review provision to include federally financed projects to construct new rental housing for elderly or disabled persons of low income. Chapter 701 of the Laws of 2006 was intended to create such a result but several sections of the General Municipal Law that are required to effectuate this purpose were inadvertently omitted from that Chapter. This bill contains those provisions and would now allow the Section 202 and Section 811 projects to be subject to accelerated land use review as was intended by Chapter 701.

Justification

This bill would strongly support the development of federally financed housing for elderly and disabled persons of low income by making such projects eligible for an expedited land use review under UDAAP. Under Section 202, the Supportive Housing Program for the Elderly, and Section 811, the Supportive Housing Program for Persons with Disabilities, not-for-profit sponsors purchase City-owned land and construct new multiple dwellings with financing from the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). The completed build- ings provide rental housing for elderly or disabled persons of low income and receive operating subsidies from HUD. Since 2002, HUD has awarded Section 202/811 funding for over 1,900 units in the five boroughs most of which have been constructed on city-owned property. Over 95% of these units were allocated to the low-income elderly and the majority are located in areas of Brooklyn and the Bronx where the demand was greatest for this desperately needed, but scarce, housing resource. Total HUD funding for these projects exceeded $230 million.

Currently, the sale of City-owned land for these projects is subject to the Uniform Land Use Review Procedure (ULURP), which delays the develop- ment of affordable housing for these vulnerable populations. A land use action subject to the full ULURP process can take up to 11 months to complete. Delays of this length often have serious consequences for these federally funded projects. HUD funding for developments and construction costs are low for typical projects in New York City market. Once allocated, however, the HUD funding timeframes are not negotiable. Adding time to the development process causes costs to rise and leaves the City in the position of having to fill the gap with other funding

sources. This, in turn, makes the development process even longer. By allowing Section 202 and Section 811 projects to be reviewed under UDAAP, the land use approval process will take a maximum of 150 days while still retaining the City Council's full land use review authority. As a result, a UDAAP land use review, instead of ULURP, would reduce the approval process by six to nine months and help ensure the timely and successful completion of the sorely needed housing developments.

The ability to accelerate the land use approval process of these devel- opments currently sunsets on June 30, 2009 and no more than 6 such developments annually will be subject to this expedited land use proc- ess. Developments subject to this authority cannot exceed over 90 dwell- ing units in size. This bill extends the authority to accelerate this review until June 30, 2012 and adds the authorizing language to several sections of the General Municipal law that were accidentally omitted in 2006.

In summary, the bill would not only speed up the development of housing for low-income seniors and the disabled, but would also reduce construction costs and ensure that scarce and highly competitive federal funding commitments are not jeopardized by unwarranted delays.

Accordingly, the Mayor urges the earliest possible favorable consider- ation of this proposal by the Legislature.

Prior legislative history

New Bill

Fiscal implications

None to the State

Effective date

This act shall take effect immediately