With Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s support, Gov. Kathy Hochul is pushing to ease New York’s environmental-review law to make it faster and cheaper to build housing and public works in the Empire State — which is great, but why not fix this quagmire for all builders?
Seizing on Mamdani’s push for “affordability” and less-expensive housing, Hochul is offering a new “Let Them Build” push to reform the State Environmental Quality Review Act, or SEQRA, to allow for faster, and therefore cheaper, construction.
Construction projects in New York take far longer than in other states to move from concept to construction — which causes costs to escalate; the Citizens Budget Commission estimates that regulatory red tape can add up to $82,000 per housing unit in the Big Apple.
To his credit, Mamdani (along with the state Association of Counties, Association of Towns and Conference of Mayors) came out in support for Hochul’s push — even though “deregulation” is anathema to so much of the left.
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But the gov’s being too cautious: Everyone who wants to build should get the same relief; it’s be a boost to the statewide economy the gov says she wants to improve.
Mamdani, for his part, should start looking at how deregulation could boost affordability all across the city.