Nicole Campo, AICP, WEDG, FAIA, Senior Advisor for Land Use Planning at Langan Engineering, recently spoke with Design 2147 CEO Sisto Martello about how programs like The City of Yes and Affordable Housing Fast Track for Fair Housing are shaping the evolution of the land use process.
Q: You’ve worked on both sides of the land use world. Tell us a little about what you’re doing these days at Langan Engineering.
A: Most of my career was in New York City government. I had about 12 years at city planning, and then my last role with the city was as a VP of land use at the New York City Economic Development Corporation. While I was there, and in previous roles, I had the opportunity to work with a lot of different firms, lots of engineering firms, architects, attorneys. I had always had a wonderful experience working with Langan. I felt that they were always at the top of their game and I never really had to use my own expertise to hand-hold them through any of the processes. So for various reasons, I felt it was time for me to make my next move, and I spoke to some of the folks I knew at Langan, and I started this role a little over a year and a half ago as the senior advisor for our land use planning practice.
Traditionally, Langan has had a small land use planning team to help support projects coming into Langan that would need environmental review, typically city SEQR, CEQR, and then sometimes state SEQR and federal level environmental review, which is NEPA. Our team has tripled in size in the past year and a half, two years in the New York City office. And for those who understand environmental review, there are a lot of specialty analyses that could be required in traffic or air quality, natural resources, shadows, things like that. We pretty much have all of that in-house, so it’s a great place for somebody like me to work.
Q: Studies have found that permitting alone can raise the cost of development by more than 30 percent and add two or more years to a project. What are the most meaningful reforms being pursued to streamline the permitting process in New York City?
A: City Charter reforms regarding ULURP, Green Fast Track and City of Yes Reforms, and SEQRA reform
Q: There’s a lot of buzz that everything in the city takes so long and is too bureaucratic. On the environmental side, how much of the talk about expedited reviews is substance versus fluff?
A: Having been on the city side of things, I can speak to both sides of this. I have been the one reviewing ULURP applications, writing ULURP applications, bringing them before the commission, writing and reviewing SEQR applications. I believe that there are very legitimate reasons for projects to go through these processes. It is a great check and balance to ensure that the rules are being followed, the environment is being cared for, communities are being heard, public safety, all of that.
But there are improvements that can be made. Part of it is process improvements, which the city is working on and has been very diligently working on. Another aspect is the civil service process, the hiring process, and issues with OMB. I do hope that they’ll address those as well.
Q: What’s your take on the City of Yes initiative? Has it been as positive as many are saying?
A: I agree. I think City of Yes was brilliant, and I think it’s brilliant largely for how it was approached politically. City of Yes was a citywide proposal. It affected all council districts across the city of New York. So it wasn’t a situation in which a certain council member didn’t like it and it was in their district and they could kind of fight against it and shut it down. It was citywide. And of course, there were negotiations during the ULURP process.
I think Dan Garodnick, who was the head of city planning for the duration of that project, did a great job as a former elected official who knows how to communicate with people and knows how to campaign. He essentially ran a campaign for the City of Yes proposal.
City of Yes was wonderful and it speaks to this idea that folks are still combating, not only in New York City but across the country. Everyone has now felt it, whether they feel it themselves or through the next generation, that housing is incredibly expensive. Americans are not able to be homeowners at the rate that they were before, or as young as they were before. We have an aging housing stock and the production of housing is not keeping up with the need for housing. Most people agree we should absolutely build more housing, but nobody wants it near their house and nobody wants it in their neighborhood. If that’s happening in every neighborhood, then where is it getting built? It’s not.
Q: Tell us about the Affordable Housing Fast Track for Fair Housing coming in 2027. What is it and how does it work?
A: In November 2025, there were ballot measures that voters could vote yes or no on. One of them was related to creating modifications to the city charter, specifically pertaining to the ULURP process, such that projects that contain affordable housing would have a modified review process under ULURP.
So if you want to change the zoning district of a certain block, that triggers ULURP, which has a whole pre-certification process where you’re getting all the technical documents together, and then the official ULURP process starts. That involves the community board, which has 60 days to review, then the borough president has another 30 days, then it goes to the City Planning Commission, there’s a public hearing, and then it goes to the city council, which is the final vote.
Historically at the city council, council members have practiced council member deference, meaning they defer to the council member of the district within which the project is being proposed. If that council member is completely against the rezoning, then it dies. Or in many cases, someone doesn’t even attempt that rezoning in that council member’s district.
The idea the city has put out thus far is that some criteria will be created, and we should hear more specifics about that in the fall of this year, where we will better understand which 12 council districts throughout the city of New York have produced the least amount of affordable housing in the past X number of years. Those 12 districts will be published and over time they may change. The name for this program they’re calling right now is an Affordable Housing Fast Track for Fair Housing.
Legally, this is relying on the Fair Housing Act, where every community has to have their fair share. So any rezonings proposed in any of these 12 districts that have produced the least amount of affordable housing will have a truncated ULURP process, and the council member deference, where the local council member can essentially kill a project, will no longer be able to happen, as long as city hall and others are behind and support the rezoning or the project.
Q: Even with the fast track, will environmental review still be required?
A: Right. If you’re willing to do the work to go through a rezoning, that will still include an environmental review under CEQR. That environmental review will still study all of the things that it has always studied and should study. Is there sufficient open space in the area for new residents? Are there enough school seats? Will there be impacts to traffic such that signals need to be changed or a new light needs to go in, or sidewalks need to be widened for pedestrians? Whatever comes from that environmental review will still happen. People are not just approving this without doing a full analysis.
But if you are willing to go through that, such that you’re essentially upzoning a property that then requires a 25 or 30 percent set-aside of units for income-restricted housing, and you’re in an area that historically has not produced affordable housing, then this will be a much faster process. Before, if the community board and the council member were against it, you were told don’t even bother, don’t waste your money.
Q: What do you see as the biggest positive that will come out of the Affordable Housing Fast Track for Fair Housing?
A: I think some neighborhoods will get much-needed development. The people who are sometimes very politically active or have the loudest voices don’t always necessarily represent their whole community. People desperately need housing in the city, especially income-restricted housing where they have a little more confidence that their rent is not going to skyrocket a year after their lease and they’re going to have to double up with family or figure out their next move. They can stay in the city that they grew up in, or where they have family or jobs.
I think it’s also something that a lot of folks don’t even understand yet. There are articles out there about what those 12 districts might be. I would say if any listeners are curious about this and want to learn more, myself or my team is always more than happy to have a conversation about it, or if there’s a professional group that wants more information on this so far, we’d be glad to help.
Q: Looking ahead on the environmental review side, what changes are coming in terms of the Green Fast Track memo and state-level SEQR reform?
A: The city put forth a new process for certain projects that meet certain criteria, where they can have a truncated environmental review. Instead of the full SEQR environmental assessment statement, the project can do what’s called a Green Fast Track memo. There’s certain information that needs to be put into that memo, and it’s still a document the public can read and understand what’s going on. But the project change is typically so negligible that it doesn’t merit a year and a half, $200,000 to $300,000 document that most projects going through rezoning would face, and that’s on the lower end. For more significant projects, it can be a lot more.
I think a lot of people don’t understand that $200,000 to $300,000 someone is paying for an analysis and a document is money that’s not going into the building. We have had a few projects where the project qualified for a Green Fast Track memo. Because of the staffing issues, I think it didn’t save a ton of time, but it definitely saved a ton of money. I think it’s a win. We’re trying to spark new housing and development, so if we can take some of these burdens off of the people who are trying to produce this housing, every little bit helps.
At the state level, Governor Hochul has committed to reforms to the state SEQR process, saying that developments under 500 units may qualify. I think there will still be more stipulations to what that means. Maybe they have to use renewable energy or meet certain criteria. We’ll see in the coming months what that’s going to look like, and that should help development throughout the state as well, because a lot of townships and cities outside of New York City use the state SEQR process.
