Following New York City Mayor Eric Adams’ announcement of his “City of Yes” plan in June, the Building and Land Use Approval Streamlining Task Force (BLAST) released the “Get Stuff Built” report last week detailing 111 actions the city intends to take to reduce time, cost, and bureaucratic red tape during the development process. These actions will aim to reduce delays by 50% through improvements to environmental review, land use review, and Department of Buildings (DOB) permitting.

“Today we are saying yes to more housing and yes to getting stuff built,” said Mayor Adams in a press release. “We are going to build faster, we are going to build everywhere, and we are going to build together.”

The Mayor’s announcement of the Get Stuff Built plan emphasized the city’s housing crisis and included a “moonshot” goal of constructing 500,000 new housing units over the next decade.

“If New York is to remain the city we love, we must have places for the people we love,” said Mayor Adams. “We need more housing, and we need it as fast as we can build it.”

While the Mayor’s announcement emphasized housing, many of the proposed actions would benefit all types of development. Get Stuff Built proposes to reduce time and expense by:

• Providing better transparency and more efficiency during the environmental review process by creating consistency across documents and reviews;
• Speeding up the review of discretionary actions during the Department of City Planning’s pre-certification process through more uniform application requirements and consistent review of land use findings;
• Creating a “one-stop shop” portal at DOB for processing construction-related transactions, including permitting review and approval, across all city agencies; and
• Improving technology and web tools, including DOB NOW, for applicants and city agencies.

City agencies have already begun implementing several Get Stuff Built actions that can be completed within the next year. These include initiatives that require updates to internal agency processes and technical manuals, such as standardizing the format of the Environmental Assessment Statement, filling staff vacancies at the Department of City Planning, and streamlining rules to more efficiently process Landmarks Preservation Commission permits.

Half of the proposed actions would require city legislative approvals and are expected to roll out over the next two years. These actions include adopting a building code for older buildings and exempting certain affordable housing and residential developments that require discretionary approvals from environmental review.

Actions that would need to go through the city’s Uniform Land Use Review Procedure and actions requiring significant technology improvements are anticipated to take two to three years. Examples include changes to the NYC Zoning Resolution to simplify special permit findings and requirements and the transfer of FDNY construction permit responsibilities to DOB.

We will continue to keep a close watch on the implementation of the Get Stuff Built plan as the city progresses with its City of Yes initiative. We welcome any requests for further information.