New York, New York, Question 3, Expedited Land Use Review Procedure Charter Amendment (November 2025)

New York Question 3
Election date November 4, 2025
Topic Local charter amendments and Local housing
Status On the ballot
Type Referral

New York Question 3 is on the ballot as a referral in New York on November 4, 2025.

A "yes" vote supports creating an Expedited Land Use Review Procedure for certain land use changes and projects related to affordable housing.

A "no" vote opposes creating an Expedited Land Use Review Procedure for certain land use changes and projects related to affordable housing.

A simple majority is required to approve the measure.

Election results

New York Question 3
Result		Votes	Percentage
Yes		0	0.00%
No		0	0.00%

Overview

What would this charter amendment do with the land use procedure for affordable housing?

A land use procedure is the formal process a city uses to review, approve, or deny proposed changes to how land can be used or developed for housing. The amendment would create an Expedited Land Use Review Procedure (ELURP) in the New York City Charter for certain housing, affordable housing, and infrastructure projects.

Under the city’s current process, the Uniform Land Use Review Procedure (ULURP), all projects follow the same multi-month timeline regardless of size. ELURP would establish a shorter review while maintaining requirements for environmental review, historic district protections, and public participation.

Projects eligible for ELURP would include smaller housing rezonings, land acquisitions or dispositions for affordable housing, and infrastructure and resiliency projects such as flood protection, open space creation, and solar energy installations on city property. Community Boards and Borough Presidents would continue to provide advisory input, but their reviews would take place at the same time. The City Planning Commission would then make the final decision, unless state law requires City Council action.

Measure design

Click on the following sections for summaries of the different provisions of the ballot measure.

Expand All

Create Expedited Land Use Review Procedure (ELURP)

The charter amendment would create a new Expedited Land Use Review Procedure (ELURP) in the City Charter as an alternative to the existing Uniform Land Use Review Procedure (ULURP). ELURP was designed to expedite the review process.

Under ELURP, the timeline for public review would be reduced from ULURP’s approximate seven months to about three months. Community Boards and Borough Presidents would continue to have 60 days for advisory review, but under ELURP, their review periods would run at the same time. After this period, the City Planning Commission (CPC) would have 30 days to hold a public hearing and vote to approve, approve with modifications, or disapprove the application. For categories requiring City Council review under state law (such as certain text amendments or dispositions), the Council would replace CPC as the decision-making body and would have 30–45 days to act depending on when the application is filed. The Mayor would continue to have authority to disapprove certain Council approvals, subject to override procedures.

ELURP would preserve requirements for environmental review, historic district and landmark protections, and building and safety standards.

Eligible projects for ELURP

The following categories of projects would be eligible for ELURP:

Certain housing rezonings:

• In low-density districts, rezonings to allow multifamily housing up to 45 feet in heigh and a maximum floor area ratio of 2.
• In medium and high-density districts, rezonings that increase residential capacity by 30% or less.

Affordable housing land actions:

• Dispositions of city land to Housing Development Fund Companies (HDFCs) for 100% affordable housing.
• Acquisitions of property by the city for affordable housing.
• Dispositions of small or unusable lots.
• City Map changes necessary for affordable housing projects or low-density development.

Infrastructure projects:

• Street raisings of up to 2.5 feet above base flood elevation to protect against flooding.
• Widenings of streets or bridges by up to 5 feet when required for resiliency work.
• City Map changes for resiliency projects, cleanup actions, or open space creation.
• Site selections for resiliency projects, new open space, or solar power facilities, provided that buildings included do not exceed 5,000 square feet in total.
• Dispositions or leases of city land for solar energy generation projects.
• Voluntary flood buyouts of 1–4 unit homes located in designated flood-risk areas or recent federally declared disaster areas.
• Acquisitions of wetlands or undevelopable parcels adjacent to city-owned property for resiliency or open space purposes.

The City Planning Commission, with City Council approval, would also be authorized to expand the list of eligible project types in the future.

Text of measure

Ballot title

The ballot title for Question 3 is as follows:

“

Proposed Charter Amendment: Simplify Review of Modest Housing and Infrastructure Projects Simplify review of modest amounts of additional housing and minor infrastructure projects, significantly reducing review time. Maintain Community Board review, with final decision by the City Planning Commission. “Yes” simplifies review for limited land-use changes, including modest housing and minor infrastructure projects. “No” leaves these changes subject to longer review, with final decision by City Council.

”

Full Text

The full text of this measure is available here.

Support

Supporters

Officials

• Gov. Kathy Hochul (D)

Organizations

• Citizens Budget Commission
• Open New York

Arguments

• Gov. Kathy Hochul (D): "Affordability is my number one priority, and that starts with housing. The cost of living is too damn high – especially when it comes to the sky-high rents and mortgages families pay every month. The only solution to New York’s housing crisis is to build more housing, and we must use every tool in the toolbox to get it done. Props 2-5 will help ensure New Yorkers can live, thrive, and raise their families in the city they call home. It’s time to say yes to more homes, lower costs, and a stronger future for New York families."
• New York City Charter Revision Commission: "This new simplified review procedure is known as the Expedited Land Use Review Procedure, or ELURP. ELURP would begin with advisory review by the Community Board and Borough President. The Community Board would have the same opportunity for public review that it has today—60 days. Following this 60-day period, the City Planning Commission would have a 30-day review period to hold a public hearing and vote to approve, approve with modifications, or disapprove—a decision that would be final, with no further review by the City Council required. Sometimes, for projects that require City Council review under state law, the City Council’s review would replace the City Planning Commission’s. From start to finish, ELURP would cut the amount of time that covered applications spend in public review in half."
• Citizens Budget Commission: "CBC’s research has found that the time, cost, and uncertainty of the land use process mean that only developers of large projects are willing and able to take on the risk of ULURP. The ELURP process would be an attractive review avenue for the modest projects that almost never seek zoning changes through ULURP today. ELURP would significantly reduce both cost and uncertainty associated with the rezoning process by cutting the review time in half and removing the risk associated with member deference, while still ensuring local concerns are still heard through Borough President and Community Board reviews. ELURP also would build on the previous Green Fast Track environmental review streamlining. Together, ELURP and Green Fast Track would reduce the cost of development by hundreds of thousands, if not millions of dollars per project."

Opposition

Ballotpedia has not located a campaign in opposition to the ballot measure. You can share campaign information or arguments, along with source links for this information, with us at editor@ballotpedia.org.

Campaign finance

See also: Campaign finance requirements for New York ballot measures

Ballotpedia did not identify ballot measure committees registered to support or oppose the ballot measure.

	Cash Contributions	In-Kind Contributions	Total Contributions	Cash Expenditures	Total Expenditures
Support	$0.00	$0.00	$0.00	$0.00	$0.00
Oppose	$0.00	$0.00	$0.00	$0.00	$0.00
Total	$0.00	$0.00	$0.00	$0.00	$0.00

Background

Uniform Land Use Review Procedure (ULURP)

New York City's Uniform Land Use Review Procedure (ULURP) is the formal review process for major land use changes. It was established in the City Charter in 1975 to standardize and democratize how rezonings, site selections, and other significant land-use actions are decided. ULURP governed changes such as large rezonings, dispositions of city-owned land, certain affordable housing developments, and certain infrastructure projects.

Once an application is approved by the Department of City Planning, it would go through a seven-month period of review. First, the Community Board has 60 days to hold a hearing and issue an advisory recommendation. Next, the Borough President has 30 days to advise the decision. The City Planning Commission then has 60 days to vote on whether to approve, modify, or deny the application. If it passes, the City Council has up to 50 days to consider it. The Mayor can veto a Council approval, although the Council may override that veto with a two-thirds vote.

Housing production in New York City

According to the Charter Revision Commission report published in July 2025, 25,000 homes were built in New York City each year, but that this was half of what the city needed. The Commission estimated that "over the next ten years, the city is about 500,000 homes short of a healthy housing market, where costs are stable, families and individuals have options, and the city and its economy have room to grow and change over time." The Commission also noted that the building of housing is uneven, with 12 community districts adding as much housing as 47 combined.

Path to the ballot

This measure was put on the ballot through a vote of the New York City Charter Revision Commission.

How to cast a vote

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See also

Local measures

• Local measures in 2025
• Local charter amendments on the ballot

New York

• New York 2025 local measures
• Local ballot measures, New York
• New York, New York

News and analysis

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• Measures advancing national agendas