Syracuse developer Ryan Benz estimates that he and his partners spent more than $1 million to prepare an environmental impact statement for their proposed redevelopment of ShoppingTown mall and to defend the statement in a lawsuit.
Benz’s company prevailed in court, but the litigation dragged on so long that his $400 million proposal to build housing and retail stores at the dead mall fell through. Onondaga County, which owns the property, is expected to put out a new request for development proposals soon.
Benz is far from the only housing developer stung by delays arising from New York’s environmental review law.
Those expenses and delays too often stand in the way of desperately needed housing development, Gov. Kathy Hochul said in her State of the State speech Tuesday.
Hochul said she will push this year to amend the State Environmental Quality Review Act, or SEQRA, to exempt some housing development. That commitment was hailed by developers and housing advocates as a positive step toward easing the state’s housing crisis while still protecting the environment.
“I think we need to find that balance,’’ Benz said. “And I’m glad to see that the politicians are trying to find the line.”
The full details of Hochul’s plan won’t come out until she presents her budget later this month. But the intent appears to be to smooth the review process for so-called infill development in areas that are already urbanized.
To qualify for a fast-tracked review, a housing project must be on “previously disturbed land’’ – no farm fields or forests – and it must be in an area already served by water and sewer lines, according to the governor’s briefing book. There will also be limits on the number of units in a project, depending on the density of the community.
“Gov. Hochul’s proposal will reserve these fast-track environmental review processes for only those projects proceeding in previously disturbed areas, meaning areas that have already been developed or improved, which provides the dual benefit of protecting our natural resources and undisturbed lands, while strengthening our neighborhoods,’’ the governor’s document said.
Sen. Rachel May, D-Syracuse, has used some of the same language in legislation she has sponsored for the past couple years that aims to promote affordable housing. Her “Sustainable Affordable Housing and Sprawl Prevention Act” would streamline the review process for infill developments that include specified numbers of affordable units.
Those projects have environmental benefits that SEQRA does not account for, such as reducing the need for car travel and utilizing existing infrastructure rather than promoting sprawl.
“The purpose is to enable construction in infill zones where the SEQRA process has led to lawsuits that drag the whole process of building out for years, drive the cost way up, and often just end the projects altogether,’’ May said.
May said she did not know how closely Hochul’s legislation might mirror her own, which passed the Senate last year but was not taken up in the Assembly. But the governor’s intent appears to be to give developers some certainty rather than the indefinite delays they often face now, May said.
“It looks like they’re trying to create a kind of maximum time period that this approval process can take, which is really valuable, because what the developers say is that time delays are part of what drive the cost up,’’ May said.
Home builder Dan Barnaba, of Eldan Homes, said without knowing the details it’s hard to predict whether Hochul’s proposal will speed up housing development in Central New York. But he applauded her effort to address the issue.
Too often, he said, the SEQRA review process is “weaponized’’ by opponents of development who raise spurious objections to traffic studies, stormwater plans or other elements of the review with the sole aim of slowing down the process.
Barnaba said all levels of government are starting to pay attention to the barriers to development.
“I’ve been doing this now, coming on 30 years, and the level of government outreach, I’ve never seen this before,’’ he said. “We’re getting sincere interest in what we can do now.”
In a 2022 study of land use regulation in New York City, the nonpartisan Citizens Budget Commission found that environmental reviews took two years to complete on average and added 11% to 16% to the cost of housing developments.
It’s not clear how closely that data reflects Upstate housing projects, but developers say there is no question that SEQRA adds time and money to the cost of building.
“I applaud the governor’s focus on improving the speed of new housing coming to market,” Benz said. “The environmental review is a critical part of the process that, depending upon the project, can add significant costs and timeline.”
Correction: A previous version of this story incorrectly stated that Sen. May’s housing bill had not passed the Senate. It passed the Senate last year but has not been considered in the Assembly.
Staff writer Tim Knauss can be reached at: email|Twitter| 315-470-3023.
