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Kathy the builder: Hochul correctly puts housing production front and center in her State of the State

The New York Daily News - 1/11/2023

Since taking over from Andrew Cuomo in August 2021, Gov. Hochul’s agenda has been largely shaped by a pandemic’s public health imperatives and by the political imperative of her impending election. It wasn’t clear what she’d do with hard-won leverage in a term of her own.

We heard the beginning of an answer yesterday in a State of the State speech stuffed with policy ideas: Hochul wants to take a big swing at producing more housing to help a state where restrictive zoning and anemic output has constrained construction and driven up the cost of living for millions. Amen.

Over generations, New York City, its suburbs and further-flung communities have erected a range of impediments to raising new homes, resulting in output that’s lagged job expansion and trailed other parts of the country by a mile. Supply by one measure is 800,000 homes short of what is needed over the next decade to meet demand.

Hochul wants to set growth targets (3% every three years downstate, 1% every three years upstate) — then let localities determine what tools they’ll use to hit those targets. We like the results-driven approach, which also specifies that affordable units will count for double market-rate units, and which cuts slack to those that relax zoning to try to move the needle only to find that there is, alas, insufficient demand.

But if, after three years, a locality has made no effort to hit growth targets, the state will step in and impose fast-track approval of new affordable developments.

Simultaneously, Hochul wants the Legislature to craft a replacement to the economically critical 421-a tax incentive, which expired last year. And she would wisely create a new requirement for the generation of higher-density housing near mass transit stations.

If you’re feeling déjà vu, it’s because the governor tried to do some similar things last year, then wound up dropping the potato when it started burning her hand. This time, she needs the savvy to adjust policies strategically and the mettle to see them through.

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