Governor Hochul recently released proposed reforms to the State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQRA) in her 2026-27 budget in response to the state-wide housing affordability and availability crisis. SEQRA, enacted in 1975, requires state and local agencies to assess environmental impacts before approving major projects. The Governor’s budget proposal would exempt a range of new housing developments from SEQRA review in order to accelerate construction statewide.
As a member of the Hudson Valley Alliance for Housing & Conservation, HHLT understands the need for updating SEQRA regulations in order to facilitate the production of more affordable housing in the Hudson Valley. It is essential that we safeguard the future of the Hudson Valley by ensuring that young people starting out, essential workers, and seniors wanting to scale down have attainable housing options available to them. However any changes to SEQRA to meet those goals need to be thoughtfully considered and enacted. HHLT recently signed on to a letter created by a coalition of environmental organizations including Riverkeeper and Scenic Hudson, urging Governor Hochul to refine the legislation with input from environmental, housing, and local government stakeholders. The signatories to the letter agree that clearer timelines, a statute of limitations on legal challenges, and exemptions for housing built on genuinely disturbed urban land can help mitigate the housing crisis, but concerns remain regarding a number of proposed revisions, which include:
- Overly broad exemptions that could fast-track development on lawns, utility corridors, farmland, and partially wooded parcels.
- No flood zone protections (projects in FEMA 100-year flood zones, including in NYC, could bypass environmental review entirely).
- No affordability requirements, meaning the exemptions could accelerate market-rate development without solving the housing crisis.
- No water/sewer capacity checks before new developments connect to already-strained infrastructure.
- A 100-unit exemption threshold outside NYC that is arbitrary and does not take into account population size of smaller municipalities.
- No safeguards for contaminated sites, creating public health risks for nearby residents.
HHLT recognizes the dire need for more affordable housing in the Hudson Valley, but calls on the Governor and lawmakers to approach reforms to SEQRA carefully and ensure that New York’s vital natural resources are not negatively impacted by streamlined residential development that does not deliver affordability to existing and future generations of New Yorkers.