Abstract
There is little question that New York, like many states across the country, is facing a housing crisis: too few housing units are built each year to accommodate the state’s ever-growing job market. The seemingly-obvious fix is to build more housing –– but in many of New York’s communities, adding new housing is nearly impossible due to so-called “exclusionary zoning,” which prevents anything but single-family homes from being built. In a majority of suburban localities, duplexes, triplexes, and other small apartment buildings are either illegal, shunted into a small, densely zoned corner of the town, or are met with such strong resistance that the project becomes untenable for developers. This reality leaves these communities with a compounding deficit of new housing units. Exclusionary zoning has pushed many groups out of the housing market and contributed to skyrocketing prices statewide, resulting in record high percentages of New Yorkers who are rent-burdened or cannot afford housing at all. With the legislature failing to address this crisis, the State must look to the Governor to increase housing development. This Note proposes that the Governor use her emergency authority to declare a Housing State of Emergency, taking back the authority local governments currently wield over land use regulations in order to jump-start housing growth in New York State. Doing so would give developers a chance catch up to housing demand, lowering prices and providing an opening for the legislature to take more permanent action to remedy the ongoing housing crisis.
Recommended Citation
Isaac R. Burke,
The Most Exclusive Real Estate: Breaking Through Exclusionary Zoning on Long Island,
90 Brook. L. Rev.
1275
(2025).
Available at:
https://brooklynworks.brooklaw.edu/blr/vol90/iss4/6
Included in
Housing Law Commons, Property Law and Real Estate Commons, State and Local Government Law Commons
