Image Credit: NYS Association for Affordable Housing.

Association of developers and contractors of affordable housing claimed that local law on prequalification and disclosure violated their constitutional rights. On September 24, 2012, the City Council passed Local Law 44, which required the Department of Housing Preservation and Development to create a public website disclosing the scope and location of publicly-funded affordable housing projects as well as complaints about developers, contractors and subcontractors involved in the project. The website must also list which developers, contractors and subcontractors were designated “prequalified” or “disqualified” along with the selection criteria for the designation. A participating developer, contractor and subcontractor must provide quarterly salary reports if it has an annual gross revenue of at least $2.5 million or it is a principal owner of another entity and together have an aggregate annual gross revenue of at least $2.5 million. The failure to provide the quarterly reports disqualified the developer, contractor or subcontractor from being designated as prequalified. (read more…)

Councilmember David Greenfield, chair of the Committee on Land Use, co-sponsored one of the Landmarks Law bills . Image credit: William Alatriste/New York City Council

Landmarks Chair testified that changes could be better promulgated through agency rule-making rather than by legislative fiat. On September 9, 2015 the City Council held a hearing on two potential bills that would alter the Landmarks Law section of the Administrative Code. The hearing drew a crowd that filled the main Council chamber, with over 100 people filling out forms to testify on the proposals. (read more…)