Join us for our January General Membership Meeting!

This is a joint meeting for members of both The Building & Realty Institute and Building and Allied Construction Industries of Westchester, which is the local affiliate for the National Association of Homebuilders and the New York State Builders Association.

We’ll begin with informal networking and discussion at 5:00 PM.
The main program will begin at 6:00 PM.

Price is $30 for dues-paying members, $45 for non-members. 

Our Topic Will Be “Is This the Year for SEQR Reform?”

Fifty years ago, the New York State Legislature passed and the Governor signed the State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQR). This landmark law required all local, regional, and state government agencies to equally examine the environmental impacts along with the social and economic considerations for a project or action that was within their discretion to review. What began as a thoughtful approach to make sure the impact on the environment was part of each local government’s planning process from the beginning and not an afterthought has, in the ensuing decades, become weaponized by recalcitrant officials and local neighborhood activists to bombard projects that they don’t like with extra delays (sometimes a decade or more), extra costs, potential lawsuits, and bureaucratic inefficiencies or repetition. Often the goal has not been to thoughtfully improve a project but to stop it in its tracks.

With the Greater New York area still clawing its way out of a severe housing shortage and with SEQR increasingly ironically being used to slow down climate-friendly projects including renewable energy and transit-oriented development and other types of “infill” or adaptive reuse housing proposals designed to redevelop existing sites rather than build on currently undeveloped land, there has been growing interest from the Governor and from the legislature to provide exemptions or a fixed time frame under SEQR for projects that are likely to be net benefits to the environment, including these types of housing. 

Our panel of experts will walk us through the initial intent behind SEQR, how it’s been working in the context of building housing and some of the barriers it has created, how some communities have “weaponized” it past its original intent, what some of the ideas are — in New York and other states like California, Massachusetts, and Washington — to reform environmental review for infill housing, and what the potential is for reform in New York State this year. 

Speakers (list in formation):

• Bruno Schickel, President of NYSBA and Founder & Owner of Schickel Construction Co.
• Peter Feroe, AICP, Vice President, Planning and Land Development, AKRF
• Joshua Berman, Campaigns Manager, Regional Plan Association (RPA)

If a conflict arises that will prevent you from attending, we highly encourage you to watch the live video stream, which will be hosted on the BRI’s YouTube channel. 

REGISTER HERE!