While most local municipalities have been slow to respond to the dire need for growth in their communities, this summer Governor Kathy Hochul rolled out the next major initiative of the New York Housing Compact—a plan she introduced last year to incentivize the building of 800,000 new homes in New York over the next decade.
With pressing issues like the housing shortage, strained public services, and the displacement of local renters on the rise in the Hudson Valley, it's more important than ever for local governments to provide residents with equitable opportunities to engage in the conversation about municipal development.
This summer, New York will join New Jersey in enacting one of the nation’s toughest environmental justice laws. The Environmental Justice Permitting Bill is aimed at curbing the systemic legacy of industries placing polluting facilities in minority or low-income communities.