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Dive Brief:
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani on Wednesday launched a program to expedite affordable housing development on city-owned land by prequalifying developers.
The Neighborhood Builders Fast Track program, which will focus on developers that are nonprofits and minority- and women-owned businesses, could shorten the predevelopment request for proposals process by as much as eight months for some projects, cutting the timeline nearly in half, according to the city.
Dive Insight:
Many local governments are turning to public land to address affordable housing shortages. A recent Chicago initiative aims to fill the city’s vacant lots with middle-scale housing. California has also pushed to build affordable housing on excess state land following an executive order from Gov. Gavin Newsom in 2019.
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“If you can own the land, you have a huge stake in the game,” Clearfield City, Utah, Mayor Mark Shepherd said last year during a housing accelerator panel at a National League of Cities conference. Municipal efforts to cut red tape around zoning and permitting processes are also on the rise.
Mamdani earlier this year formed two task forces to identify opportunities to build housing on city-owned sites and to reform the affordable housing production process.
The Neighborhood Builders Fast Track program “will reduce costs, speed up timelines, and maximize affordability,” Housing and Preservation Commissioner Dina Levy said in a news release. “Public land is a public good — and we will not let city-owned sites sit idle while New Yorkers struggle to find an affordable home.”
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