By Forum Staff
Mayor Eric Adams and New York City Department of City Planning (DCP) Director and City Planning Commission (CPC) Chair Dan Garodnick on Monday unveiled the “Green Fast Track” — a streamlined environmental review process to accelerate the production of small- and medium-sized housing projects across New York City. A major initiative of the administration’s “Get Stuff Built” plan to create more housing by cutting red tape, streamlining processes, and removing bureaucratic obstacles, the Green Fast Track will help achieve the City’s housing and climate goals by making it easier for modest, climate-friendly housing projects to proceed through environmental review.
In exploring the potential for a Green Fast Track, city planning and environmental experts analyzed more than 1,000 environmental reviews over the last decade, consistently finding that modest housing projects with certain characteristics had no negative impacts on the environment. By shifting these projects onto the Green Fast Track — designating them as “Type II” actions under the City Environmental Quality Review process — the city will reduce redundant or unnecessary processes for projects of a certain size and speed up environmental review by as much as 24 months, saving each project an average of $100,000 and quickly delivering urgently needed housing. By adjusting eligibility requirements to include sustainability measures — such as all-electric heating — the city can also leverage the environmental review process to accelerate its climate goals.
The extensive, existing environmental review process can take up to several years and cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to complete. Proposed by the administration at today’s CPC meeting, the new environmental review process rules outline specific criteria related to a housing project’s sustainability, size, surroundings, and safety. If the proposed rules had been in effect over the last 10 years, approximately 12,000 new housing units could have been built more quickly and efficiently. To qualify, projects must:
- Use all-electric heating instead of fossil fuels;
- Be located outside of vulnerable coastal areas, areas with industrial emissions, or away from major roads; and
- Meet specific mitigation standards for areas with hazardous materials or in high-ambient noise.
In low-density residential areas, qualifying proposals must have fewer than 175 units and take up less than 20,000 square feet of nonresidential area. In medium- and high-density residential areas and commercial or manufacturing districts, projects must have fewer than 250 units and take up less than 35,000 square feet of nonresidential area. The Green Fast Track also excludes projects over 250 feet tall or over 50 feet tall and next to open space, natural resources, or historic resources that are sunlight sensitive. Green Fast Track proposals requiring a rezoning would continue to go through the city’s existing Uniform Land Use Review Procedure process, and proposals in historic districts would continue to require oversight from the Landmarks Preservation Commission. Under state law, city agencies have the authority to propose new rules that would allow certain projects to go through a more streamlined environmental review process. Today, the Mayor’s Office of Environmental Coordination (MOEC), the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD), the Board of Standards and Appeals (BSA), and DCP began the process to expand the list of developments that qualify for a more streamlined environmental review.
