Governor Hochul Holds Roundtable With Local Leaders to Highlight Let Them Build Agenda as Statewide Support Continues to Grow

Governor Kathy Hochul today held a roundtable with leaders from across the state to highlight her "Let Them Build" agenda, a series of landmark reforms to speed up housing and infrastructure development and lower costs as part of her 2026 State of the State. This initiative will spur a series of common sense reforms to New York's State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQRA) and executive actions to expedite critical categories of projects that have been consistently found to not have significant environmental impacts, but for too long have been caught up in red tape and subject to lengthy delays. Together, these actions will make it easier to build the housing and infrastructure that localities want and that New Yorkers need.

"For too long, red tape has stood in the way of communities building the housing and infrastructure that New Yorkers desperately need. That's why this year, I proposed that when a community says yes to housing and to critical infrastructure like clean water and childcare facilities, we are going to let them build," Governor Hochul said. "New York has always been a state that builds, and with these reforms, we can recapture that ambition, making it easier and more affordable to build while preserving essential environmental protections. I have heard the urgency of these reforms from leaders across our state, and standing with them, I will fight to get it done."

Participants of today's roundtable included:

• Yadira Ramos-Herbert, Mayor of New Rochelle
• Stephen Acquario, Executive Director, New York State Association of Counties
• Chris Brown, Housing Development Coordinator, Columbia Economic Development Corporation (CEDC)
• Nicole Green, President and CEO of the North Country Rural Development Coalition and Executive Director of the Essex County Land Bank
• Jahkeen Hoke, Principal, Hoke Development
• Dan McCoy, Albany County Executive
• Steve Noble, Mayor of Kingston
• Carlina Rivera, President and CEO, New York State Association for Affordable Housing

Today, it is too difficult to build major projects in New York: housing and critical infrastructure projects can take as much as 56 percent longer in New York State to get from concept to groundbreaking compared to peer states. Longer projects equal higher costs, a challenge that is especially critical in the context of New York's housing crisis, where the only solution to high costs and scarce homes is to build more housing faster and more affordably than before. Red tape can increase the cost of building a unit of housing in New York City by as much as $82,000. Similarly, burdensome and duplicative requirements delay needed investment in clean water infrastructure, child care centers, and parks.

For too long, red tape has stood in the way of communities building the housing and infrastructure that New Yorkers desperately need. That's why this year, I proposed that when a community says yes to housing and to critical infrastructure like clean water and childcare facilities, we are going to let them build."

Helping Our Communities Build Housing

When Governor Hochul took office, she vowed to tackle the housing crisis and bring down costs by building the housing that New Yorkers desperately need so that more hard working households and families can afford a place to call home. However, too much critically-needed housing development is forced to navigate a web of red tape created by state mandates that can add unnecessary costs and years of needless delays, despite such housing development consistently being found to have no significant adverse environmental impacts. Studies have shown thatState-mandated environmental review can slow down housing projects by an average of two years, and add hundreds of thousands of dollars of additional costs , at a time when New Yorkers can least afford to wait for the housing they need to continue to live and thrive in New York.

To speed up the development of housing to create a more affordable and sustainable New York, Governor Hochul has proposed to amend the State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQRA) to exempt certain types of housing that have no significant adverse impacts on the environment from SEQRA review. Housing exempted from SEQRA will still be required to comply with crucial State regulatory and permit requirements governing water use, air quality, and protection of natural resources. The proposal does not supersede local zoning and other state and local permitting requirements, and exempted housing also must be located outside of flood risk areas in order to qualify.

Years of experience in both New York City and across the state, involving more than a thousand projects, has shown that virtually none of such projects ultimately were found to have significant environmental impacts, but nevertheless were still subject to lengthy and duplicative reviews. Governor Hochul's reforms will cut red tape to accelerate the delivery of much needed housing and reduce the cost of building in ways that are consistent with sustainable and environmentally-protective development, driving down the cost of housing and rents across the state while protecting our natural resources.

Accelerating Critical Infrastructure Projects That New Yorkers Depend On

Governor Hochul also has proposed to facilitate the speedier, cheaper delivery of a broad range of beneficial infrastructure projects that New Yorkers depend on. Specifically, the Governor has proposed to adjust SEQRA's classifications to exempt the following important categories of infrastructure that meet specific environmentally-protective criteria from additional SEQRA review to start serving New Yorkers faster:

• Clean Water Infrastructure: Critical water infrastructure that avoids impacts to natural resources.
• Green Infrastructure: Nature-based storm water management.
• Parks and Trails: Public parks and recreational bike/pedestrian paths
• Child Care: New or renovated child care centers

Governor Hochul's proposal would reserve these fast-track environmental review processes for only infrastructure that would be located at previously disturbed areas, protecting our natural resources and undisturbed lands, while strengthening our neighborhoods. The Governor's approach would yield tangible environmental benefits including improved air and water quality, and the preservation of critical habitats when compared to policies which encourage sprawl and unchecked development of natural areas.

Currently, SEQRA review timelines vary greatly across projects, creating unpredictability for local communities, project sponsors, and state agencies alike. To cut through the red tape, Governor Hochul has proposed to do the following to expedite review when SEQRA applies:

• Deliver faster decisions for local communities by setting clear timelines for environmental impact statements and driving accountability
• Streamline some environmental impact statements to cut down on review timelines for key categories of projects
• Modernize New York's permitting processes to save time and money for localities by improving processes and utilizing new technologies
• Expedite major state infrastructure projects to serve New Yorkers faster
• Support local communities through a new permitting academy

Contact the Governor's Press Office