Mayor Mamdani unveils SPEED reforms to fast-track affordable housing development in NYC
NEW YORK (WABC) -- Mayor Zohran Mamdani released "SPEED" reforms to deliver affordable housing faster in New York City.
"SPEED" stands for Streamlining Procedures to Expedite Equitable Development.
The mayor's office says the reforms target every stage of the development process, including predevelopment, permitting and lease-up, and will cut timelines for all affordable housing projects by eight months.
For projects that require a zoning change, the reforms will reduce timelines by as much as two years, officials said.
"These delays are not inevitable. They are the result of broken systems and a failure of political will," Mamdani said. "New Yorkers cannot afford to wait years for affordable housing while projects sit trapped in bureaucracy. SPEED is about making government deliver faster, fairer and at the scale this crisis demands."
"Our administration is tackling the housing crisis with the urgency New Yorkers deserve. With these investments and procedural changes, we will cut months or even years off the affordable housing development timeline - months that New Yorkers can spend in permanent housing instead of instability," said Leila Bozorg, deputy mayor for housing and planning.
The reforms aim to make the process faster and more accountable in four stages of development: environmental review and planning; predevelopment and financing; permitting and approvals; and marketing and lease-up.
The precertification process for projects requiring zoning changes will now take about six months, down from two years.
The city will also reduce permitting timelines for both new construction and office-to-residential conversion projects by approximately five months.
Another change is an overhaul of the city's housing lottery system.
Mamdani said his administration will implement immediate improvements while building a more flexible long-term system that is fair, transparent and easier to navigate.
These reforms could cut the timeline from construction completion to move-in by more than half, from 210 days to fewer than 100.
The SPEED task force that developed the reforms was created by Mamdani on his first day in office.
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