Housing Policy

Streamlining and Taxes

New York lawmakers exempt some housing from the state's environmental review law while piling taxes on second homes.

Christian Britschgi | 6.9.2026 1:35 PM

Share on FacebookShare on XShare on RedditShare by emailPrint friendly versionCopy page URL Add Reason to Google

Media Contact & Reprint Requests

(Illustration: Anthony Behar/Sipa USA/Newscom/Stefan Ugljevarevic/Dreamstime)

Happy Tuesday and welcome to another edition of Rent Free.

This week's newsletter takes a look at some recent state-level policy changes in New York, where lawmakers passed streamlining reforms to the state's environmental review law for the first time in decades while also layering on new taxes on second homes.

Meanwhile, in Portland, Oregon, city-sponsored affordable housing approaches financial collapse, and rent control continues to suppress new development in Saint Paul, Minnesota.

In New York, Some Streamlining…

At the tail end of last month, the New York Legislature belatedly passed a state budget bill that includes a handful of housing policy changes.

That includes some streamlining reforms to the State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQRA). Like the California Environmental Quality Act and the National Environmental Policy Act, SEQRA requires governments to review the environmental impacts of discretionary actions they take.

Rent Free Newsletter by Christian Britschgi. Get more of Christian's urban regulation, development, and zoning coverage.

Instagram

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Email(Required)

SUBSCRIBE

Housing projects that require a rezoning, public subsidy, or special permit may be required to perform SEQRA reviews. Study periods can last anywhere from six months for smaller projects that are subject to a lesser level of review to close to three years for more significant rezonings.

Like other environmental review laws, SEQRA also allows third parties to sue when they believe a project was approved without a thorough enough environmental review.

In 2024, state courts decided 43 SEQRA lawsuits. Only 10 of those involved housing projects, and of those, only one housing project was ultimately stopped by the courts.

Even so, lawsuits are expensive, particularly SEQRA lawsuits........

© Reason.com