Is it time for borough presidents to have more of a say over rezonings?
That question is baked into a potential change that may be pitched to voters in November.
Today, borough presidents review applications that go through the city’s land use review process, known as the Uniform Land Use Review Procedure, or Ulurp.
Their input, like that of Community Boards, does not make or break a project. Borough presidents get 30 days to review an application and issue a recommendation — which can then be ignored by the City Council.
This was not always the case: Ulurp went into effect in 1975, and until 1989, the process ended with the Board of Estimate, which was made up of the mayor, the comptroller, the City Council president and borough presidents. When the Board of Estimate was dissolved in 1989, the City Council was given the final say over the land use process (the mayor has veto power over these decisions, but rarely uses it).
As a report by the Charter Revision Commission notes, then-Mayor Ed Koch worried that this shift would place land use actions at the mercy of City Council member deference, giving “legislative legitimacy to the NIMBY reaction that now threatens to block any socially responsible land use policy.”
No housing proposal has been approved through Ulurp without support from the local council member in 16 years, according to the report.
One of the questions the commission may pose to voters is whether an appeals board should be established that could override City Council decisions. The board would consist of the mayor, applicable borough president and City Council speaker. In order to reverse a land use decision by the City Council, at least two of the three officials must agree. The board would also only be able to take action on applications affecting one borough.
This change, if proposed on the November ballot and ultimately adopted, could have major implications for future rezonings. Developers may not automatically abandon a proposal in the face of opposition from the local Council member — if they can get early buy-in from the appeals board.
What we’re thinking about: Who will buy Vanbarton Group’s Midtown South site at 3 West 29th Street? Send a note to kathryn@therealdeal.com.
A thing we’ve learned: If elected, now-33-year-old Zohran Mamdani would be the city’s youngest mayor since 1917, when John Purroy Mitchel, known as the “Boy Mayor” left office, according to the New York Times. Mitchel became mayor when he was 34, and served one term.
Elsewhere in New York…
— The New York Working Families Party is threatening to sue the Charter Revision Commission if it decides to ask voters in November if the city should move to a nonpartisan primary system, City & State reports. “People do rely on the party labels as a distinction of values. They look for the Democratic person. They look for the Working Families name first on the ballot,” WFP co-executive director Jasmine Gripper told City & State. The commission didn’t include the possible change as part of the five draft questions it released this month, but left the door open to ultimately including it.
— Zohran Mamdani won 30 percent of the election districts that President Donald Trump won in the 2024 election. Gothamist reports that many of those districts overlap with majority Asian American neighborhoods, and found that some residents who voted for both Trump and Mamdani were won over by their messaging around improving affordability. “Asian American voters are not defined by blind party loyalty,” Trip Yang, a Democratic strategist, told Gothamist. “They’re defined by whether a candidate speaks to their issues, even if they’re not perfect.”
— Some are urging Assembly member Jessica González-Rojas to primary Sen. Jessica Ramos, who ran for mayor but endorsed former Gov. Andrew Cuomo. González-Rojas spoke on the Max Politics podcast and said she is “taking all of this under consideration” and will make a decision by January.
Closing Time
Residential: The top residential deal recorded Wednesday was $11.5 million for a 3,267-square-foot condominium unit at 111 Murray Street in Tribeca. The Trove Team at Compass had the listing.
Commercial: The top commercial deal recorded was $18.5 million for a 30,000-square-foot industrial building at 38-18 33rd Street in Long Island City. The property last sold for $4.45 million in 2015.
New to the Market: The highest price for a residential property hitting the market was $8.2 million for a 2,900-square-foot condo unit at 39 Vestry Street in Tribeca. Lisa Fitzig and Jason Kay of The Corcoran Group have the listing. The previous sale of this unit was $7.2 million in 2015.
Breaking Ground: The largest new building application filed was for a proposed 54,266-square-foot, 99-unit residential project at 2258 Morris Avenue in Tremont. Nikolai Katz filed the permit on behalf of Grun Group.
— Matthew Elo
