STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — Two Staten Island community districts covering a large swath of the borough’s Mid-Island and South Shore have been designated for the Affordable Housing Fast Track program, a controversial initiative that will speed up approval of some affordable housing projects.

The selection was announced by Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Department of City Planning Director Sideya Sherman on Thursday.

Staten Island’s Community District 2, which covers the Mid-Island, including Arrochar, Dongan Hills, Midland Beach, New Dorp, South Beach, Todt Hill, New Springville and more, was selected for the program. So was Community District 3, which encompasses the South Shore and includes neighborhoods such as Tottenville, Great Kills, Eltingville, Prince’s Bay and Woodrow.

Beginning Jan. 1, 2027, eligible rezoning proposals that develop affordable housing in the designated Fast Track districts will utilize a “streamlined” 90-day public review process, which the mayor’s office said will cut four months from the traditional Uniform Land Use Review Procedure (ULURP).

Under ULURP, the final say on zoning approvals rests with the City Council. Under this new Affordable Housing Fast Track, that power is transferred to the City Planning Commission and the City Council has no say in the matter.

“New York’s housing crisis is not going to be solved by asking the same neighborhoods to do all the building,” said Mamdani. “Every New Yorker deserves a home they can afford, and every neighborhood must be part of delivering it. The Affordable Housing Fast Track gives us a new tool to cut through red tape and make sure our housing growth is shared more fairly across all five boroughs. We are going to build – block by block, neighborhood by neighborhood — at the scale this crisis demands.”

Despite cutting out the City Council from the decision process, the Fast Track preserves Community Board and borough president review and opportunities for public input, according to Mamdani’s office. Additionally, the mechanism does not change environmental review requirements or landmark protections.

The Fast Track is an effort to speed up affordable housing development in neighborhoods which have produced the least in the city. According to the mayor’s office, the 12 Fast Track districts represent roughly 20% of New York City’s 59 community districts but produced just 883 of 63,870 new affordable homes over the past five years — that’s about 1.1% of the citywide total.

The four community districts that produced the least each produced less than 10 affordable homes over the course of five years. Meanwhile, the highest-producing district developed eight times as many affordable homes as all 12 Fast Track districts combined, Mamdani’s office said.

The Affordable Housing Fast Track was approved by New York City voters in a ballot proposal last November despite local opposition from Staten Island’s City Council representatives.

“Last November, New Yorkers went to the polls and delivered a mandate for affordability. We’ve moved quickly to implement these new tools like the Affordable Housing Fast Track, with clear criteria for where it will apply. Soon, it will be easier to build affordable housing in the districts that have added the least — an important step in our work to deliver the housing options in every neighborhood that New Yorkers deserve,” said Leila Bozorg, deputy mayor for housing and planning.

The 12 districts chosen as part of the Fast Track will be recalculated every five years based on updated affordable housing production, with the next list scheduled to be issued in October 2031.

The initial 12 districts were based on the rate of affordable housing production examined by the Department of City Planning between July 1, 2021, and June 30, 2026.

The Affordable Housing Fast Track is part of Mamdani’s Block by Block housing plan. The administration’s plan aims to create 200,000 new affordable homes and preserve another 200,000 over the next 10 years.

As explained by Mamdani’s office, in the months ahead, the administration will explore city-sponsored land use actions in these 12 Fast Track districts in an effort “to deliver urgently needed affordable housing.”

To qualify for the Fast Track, “a housing project must have a primary purpose of facilitating additional housing, including affordable housing, and have Mandatory Inclusionary Housing (MIH) levels of affordability or higher. Generally, this means 20-30% of the residential floor area is permanently affordable,” according to the Department of City Planning.

Here are the 12 Fast Track community districts from across the city:

Brooklyn CD 10: Bay Ridge, Dyker Heights Brooklyn CD 12: Borough Park, KensingtonBrooklyn CD 18: Canarsie, FlatlandsManhattan CD 7: Upper West Side Manhattan CD 8: Upper East Side, Roosevelt Island Queens CD 4: Corona, Elmhurst Queens CD 5: Ridgewood, Maspeth, Middle Village Queens CD 10: South Ozone Park, Howard Beach Queens CD 11: Auburndale, Bayside, Douglaston Queens CD 13: Queens Village, Bellerose, Rosedale Staten Island CD 2: Mid-Island Staten Island CD 3: South Shore

A virtual public information session will be hosted by the Department of City Planning on Dec. 3 to explain the Affordable Housing Fast Track and to address questions from residents.

For more information on the Affordable Housing Fast Track, visit nyc.gov/content/planning/pages/planning/public-review/fast-track.