A New York trial court dismissed a petition alleging that New York City violated State Environmental Quality Review Act/City Environmental Quality Review requirements when it approved “City of Yes for Housing Opportunity” amendments to the Zoning Resolution. Among the arguments rejected by the court was a contention that the City improperly segmented its review of the Housing Opportunity amendments from its review of separate proposals for “City of Yes for Carbon Neutrality” and “City of Yes for Economic Opportunity” amendments. The Carbon Neutrality amendments were intended to facilitate decarbonization and enable compliance with State and City mandates to reduce emissions; the court described the amendments as including “changes to better accommodate rooftop solar equipment, mechanical equipment in open spaces/yards and the use of [energy storage systems (ESSs)] of limited sizes in residential districts.” The court concluded that the Carbon Neutrality amendments “stand on their own and are not contingent upon expansions of commercial uses or increases to residential densities”—which were functions of the Economic Opportunity and Housing Opportunity amendments—“to be effective.” The court further found that the environmental impact statement for the Housing Opportunity amendments addressed the impacts of Carbon Neutrality features to the extent they were incorporated in expanded residential uses. In addition, the court said the petitioners did not present “a cogent argument” in support of their position that segmentation of the review “hid or diluted” any impact associated with ESSs. The court said that any challenge to conclusions regarding impacts of ESSs in residential districts was “more properly classified” as a challenge to the earlier-passed Carbon Neutrality amendments and was therefore untimely.

Challenge to New York City's three-party citywide overhaul of its zoning resolution, which included Carbon Neutrality, Economic Opportunity, and Housing Opportunity components.

Old Town Civic Association v. City of New York

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New York Court Rejected Claims that New York City’s Environmental Review of Zoning Amendments Was Insufficient

Filed

United States of America

New York

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New York Court Rejected Claims that New York City’s Environmental Review of Zoning Amendments Was Insufficient

Policy instrument

Just transition

Economic sector

Finance