{"id":115134,"date":"2026-01-28T15:23:14","date_gmt":"2026-01-28T15:23:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/115134\/"},"modified":"2026-01-28T15:23:14","modified_gmt":"2026-01-28T15:23:14","slug":"copa-is-officially-dead-as-city-council-lets-adams-veto-of-controversial-bill-stand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/115134\/","title":{"rendered":"COPA Is Officially Dead As City Council Lets Adams’ Veto Of Controversial Bill Stand"},"content":{"rendered":"

New York City’s real estate industry\u00a0can breathe a sigh of relief: The\u00a0housing bill that would have allowed nonprofits and partner organizations first dibs\u00a0on some New York City apartment buildings is dead.<\/p>\n

\"Placeholder\"\/<\/p>\n

\n City Council Speaker Julie Menin will lead the council to a vote on 17 bills that former Mayor Eric Adams vetoed in his final days \u2013 but not the Community Opportunity to Purchase Act.\n <\/p>\n

City Council Speaker Julie Menin had the option to resuscitate the Community Opportunity to Purchase Act, which\u00a0was vetoed by former Mayor Eric Adams on his\u00a0final day in office after the council\u00a0passed it on the last day<\/a>\u00a0of the 2025 legislative session.<\/p>\n

But Menin\u00a0has decided to let Adams\u2019 veto stand,\u00a0City & State reported<\/a>\u00a0Tuesday afternoon. Democratic lawmakers learned during a Monday city council meeting that they wouldn’t manage to gather the 34 votes needed for a supermajority, partially due to the legal concerns raised by Mayor Zohran Mamdani<\/a>\u2019s law department, The Real Deal reported<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The bill would have given<\/a> nonprofits and partnerships\u00a0of nonprofits and private developers approved by the city\u2019s Department of Housing Preservation and Development<\/a> the first right of refusal for properties listed for sale that had four or more units and specific violations.<\/p>\n

Overturning Adams’ veto was already considered a long shot. The bill passed the council with 30 votes last month \u2014 Menin was one of eight\u00a0local lawmakers\u00a0who abstained. She demurred\u00a0to\u00a0Bisnow earlier this month<\/a> when asked about COPA’s future.<\/p>\n

Mamdani\u2019s legal team warned the council on Monday that the legislation could be unconstitutional, Politico reported<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Mamdani had previously made COPA a cornerstone of his campaign and had told Politico earlier in the week via a spokesperson that he hoped the bill would be put to another vote. His office still\u00a0wants the bill to get a new vote, a spokesperson told\u00a0Bisnow Tuesday night.<\/p>\n

“Mayor Mamdani has long supported the Community Opportunity to Purchase Act, and that support remains firm,” the spokesperson said. “At a time when New Yorkers are fighting to stay in their homes, we urge the City Council to find a path to move this legislation forward.”<\/p>\n

Menin will bring 17 other bills Adams vetoed to the city council for another round of votes Thursday, including measures that would mandate developers provide tenants in 4% of newly built affordable units the option to buy their apartments after five years.<\/p>\n

She let a\u00a0veto remain in place on one other housing bill that would have required developers to include a minimum percentage of two- and three-bedroom apartments in new affordable housing developments where the city was providing financing.<\/p>\n

The bill\u2019s sponsor, Council Member Eric Dinowitz, plans to reintroduce a new version of the bill this session, City & State reported.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Even with the vetoes, there are still less restrictive ways that Mamdani could achieve his housing goals,\u00a0Nixon Peabody<\/a>\u00a0partner Erica Buckley said by email. One option to replace COPA could be a voluntary program run through HPD, matchmaking interested sellers with nonprofit buyers.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt would be good governance for the Mamdani administration to take a pragmatic approach on COPA,\u201d\u00a0Buckley said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New York City’s real estate industry\u00a0can breathe a sigh of relief: The\u00a0housing bill that would have allowed nonprofits…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":115135,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[35316,81,19077,9,24,63,51076,134,136,135,82],"class_list":["post-115134","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-staten-island","tag-community-opportunity-to-purchase-act","tag-eric-adams","tag-julie-menin","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-nyc-hpd","tag-staten-island","tag-staten-island-headlines","tag-staten-island-news","tag-zohran-mamdani"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115134","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=115134"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115134\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/115135"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=115134"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=115134"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=115134"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}