On May 13, 2026, the Mamdani administration released the Streamlining Procedures to Expedite Equitable Development, or “SPEED,” report, outlining administrative reforms intended to cut development timelines for certain housing projects by approximately eight months, and by up to two years for projects requiring discretionary land use approvals.
“New Yorkers cannot afford to wait years for affordable housing while projects sit trapped in bureaucracy,” said Mayor Zohran Mamdani in a press release. “SPEED is about making government deliver – faster, fairer, and at the scale this crisis demands.”
The report, created by the administration’s SPEED Task Force, focuses on streamlining development of affordable housing, but contains proposals that would benefit market-rate housing as well. The Task Force identified seven initiatives to reduce delays and bureaucracy at four main stages of development.
Stage 1: Environmental Review and Planning
Initiative 1: Reduce the pre-certification timeline for certain land use actions from two years to six months.
Currently, housing proposals that require discretionary land use actions, such as rezonings, are subject to a lengthy environmental review process pursuant to the State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQRA). The administration is seeking SEQRA reform from Governor Hochul and the state legislature to exempt housing proposals below a specified size and meeting certain other criteria, which would substantially reduce the time and cost of environmental review. As of the SPEED report’s release, these reforms were expected to be included in the 2026 New York State budget.
In addition to reforms at the state level, the report states that the city will modernize technical environmental analyses, including transportation, air quality, and construction; hire additional staff at city agencies to increase review capacity; and create online tools to streamline environmental analyses and bring greater transparency to the environmental review process.
Stage 2: Pre-Development and Financing
Initiative 2: Centralize project management of city-financed affordable housing projects.
According to the report, from start to finish, a city-financed affordable housing project may involve up to 15 city agencies. The report states that the city will expand a 2025 interagency task force pilot program, applicable to affordable housing projects, to include coordination of approvals needed to obtain financing and to coordinate final construction sign-offs. The report also recommends creation of a new team at the Department of Housing Preservation and Development and the Mayor’s Office to manage interagency coordination; expansion of the Department of Buildings’ Affordable Housing HUB Program; and creation of new online tools to streamline multi-agency permitting efforts and more transparent policies and guidelines.
Stage 3: Permitting and Approvals
Initiatives 3, 4, and 5: Streamline inspection and approval processes that delay housing construction.
The report calls on the city to improve three specific inspection and approval processes that frequently delay housing development. First, the administration will look to streamline the process to obtain Stormwater Pollution Prevention Plan approvals, required for developments that would disturb more than 20,000 square feet of soil or would add 5,000 square feet of impermeable surfaces. Second, the report recommends the city invest in the Department of Environmental Protection’s Asbestos Technical Review Unit (often a source of delay for office-to-residential conversions) by increasing staffing and extending the term of certain permits, as well as by creating a public-facing portal to facilitate the sharing of information regarding asbestos reporting and tracking. Finally, the report recommends actions to increase the Fire Department’s (FDNY) capacity to complete fire alarm system inspections and emergency plan approvals through creation of a third-party testing procedure to indicate readiness for inspections, enhancements to digital submission tools, and hiring of additional FDNY staff.
Stage 4: Marketing and Lease-Up
Initiatives 6 and 7: Improve the lease-up process for affordable housing units.
The report’s final two initiatives focus on short-term and long-term actions needed to overhaul city systems for leasing affordable housing units to qualifying New Yorkers, including homeless New Yorkers. Through systemic changes, streamlining of applications, online tools, and improved coordination among affordable housing stakeholders, the report states that the initiatives will cut the median lease-up time for affordable housing units from 210 days to fewer than 100 days.
“Our administration is tackling the housing crisis with the urgency that New Yorkers deserve,” said Leila Bozorg, Deputy Mayor for Housing and Planning. “With these investments and procedural changes, we will cut months or even years off of the affordable housing development timeline – months that New Yorkers can spend in permanent housing instead of instability.”
The SPEED Task Force will continue to meet and consider additional initiatives to spur housing production, with an emphasis on affordable housing production. We will continue to monitor new initiatives from the Task Force and the adoption of the SPEED report’s initiatives.