The New York Landmarks Conservancy and several colleague groups have raised objections to the “Faith Based Affordable Housing Bill” because it would remove religious buildings from landmark regulations and takes away local zoning control.
The bill exempts religious institutions seeking to build mixed use or affordable housing from all local laws except fire and building codes. It requires Building Departments to process applications from religious institutions within 60 days with no review or hearing.
The bill states that it doesn’t require the alteration or demolition of a religious landmark designated as of the effective date of the bill. But it also doesn’t stop alteration or demolition.
Nassau County Town and Village leaders blasted the bill as an attack on local zoning in a recent CBSNewYork report. “The right development should be left in the hands of localities,” said Hempstead Supervisor Don Clarin. .
Open New York, a organization focused on addressing metropolitan New York’s housing shortage by increasing the rate of housing production, and which the Landmarks Conservancy has called “hostile to landmarks,” put forth the legislation. Senator Andrew Gournades, the main Senate sponsor, said weeks ago that it was not his intent to evade landmark laws. He promised an amendment to make that clear but has yet to produce one.
Read the Senate version of the bill here. The State Assembly version of the bill is located here.
“This is a bad bill,” New York Landmarks Conservancy President Peg Breen, said in an email to the organizations supporters. “It would likely face a constitutional challenge. It would also likely generate similar requests from other groups to get exemptions from local zoning.”
The bill is currently in the Assembly’s Local Governments Committee and in the Senate’s Housing, Construction and Community Development Committee.
