How environmental review is strangling New York’s future

Understanding how environmental review works is essential for anyone who wants to make it possible to build more homes.

TLDR of the blog post:

• New York requires most changes to the physical world to be closely studied for their impact on air pollution, noise, public health, libraries, schools, shadows, traffic congestion, subway ridership, and a litany of other topics.
• It is very expensive and time-consuming to estimate and review the impacts of potential projects to the level of detail required by New York’s environmental review laws.
• Making housing cheaper and improving our transportation system is seriously hampered by environmental review’s costs and delays. Even projects that are obviously good for the “environment”, like building subway lines or eco-friendly apartment buildings get stuck with these big costs.
• Reform of environmental review is possible and there have been modest successes at streamlining. However, it’s a really complex topic that requires technical expertise and political courage.