Insurgent Los Angeles mayoral candidate Spencer Pratt and New York City socialist Mayor Zohran Mamdani don\u2019t agree on much.<\/p>\n
Pratt pledges to force<\/a> homeless drug addicts into treatment; Mamdani aims to swell the \u201chomeless services\u201d budget<\/a> to $4.2 billion.<\/p>\n Pratt proposes a major\u00a0increase in the LAPD\u2019s ranks; Mamdani halted plans to hire<\/a> thousands of new NYPD officers.<\/p>\n But the Republican Angeleno\u00a0and the Gracie\u00a0Mansion DSA member do agree on one thing:\u00a0Their cities take far too long to issue developers the legally required permits they need to start building new homes \u2014 and both have promised to speed up the process.<\/p>\n Pratt vows \u201cfaster approvals, lower costs, measurable results\u201d and says he\u2019ll drop permit fees completely for single-family-home rebuilding if elected \u2014 a response to the glacial permitting<\/a> that\u2019s thwarted the restoration of LA\u2019s fire-ravaged neighborhoods.<\/p>\n Mamdani intends to make permitting \u201cfaster and fairer.\u201d<\/p>\n Both might be surprised to learn that a much smaller city in Westchester County has already figured out how to jump-start housing construction \u2014 and has managed to lower rents in the process.\u00a0<\/p>\n Since 2015 the City of New Rochelle, pop. 85,000,\u00a0has found a way to\u00a0enable construction of 5,130 new apartments and approve 2,746 more, with another 3,100 likely on the way.<\/p>\n All told, it will mean a 37% increase in its overall housing stock \u2014 a boon for the county and the entire region.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Mayor Yadira Ramos-Herbert says her town has no need for rent controls; the flood of new construction has held rent increases to just 1.6% above 2020 levels.<\/p>\n Indeed, between 2020 and 2023, the average New Rochelle rent went down by 2% \u2014 even better than Mamdani\u2019s rent-freeze campaign promise. \u00a0<\/p>\n Development Director Adam Salgado calls the \u201cNew Rochelle Model\u201d a \u201csupply-side solution\u201d to the housing crisis.<\/p>\n The key change is both simple and an ambitious challenge for any bureaucracy:\u00a0Three linchpin city agencies \u2014 the Bureau of Buildings, the Department of Development and the Planning Board \u2014 must give developers a thumbs-up or a thumbs-down within 90 days.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\tGet opinions and commentary from our columnists\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSubscribe to our daily Post Opinion newsletter!\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\tThanks for signing up!\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n New Rochelle changed its zoning<\/a> and conducted a general environmental review covering much of its downtown, allowing developers to\u00a0avoid time sinks that once meant projects needed two years or more to gain approval.<\/p>\n To date, Salgado told me, not one project review has gone past 90 days. Most take just 60.<\/p>\n It may seem\u00a0like plain common sense, but New Rochelle\u2019s approach is actually radical enough that the city last month won the University of Utah\u2019s annual\u00a0Ivory Prize for\u00a0housing affordability.<\/p>\n The city \u201cset the playbook, then private developers could come and play,\u201d Scott Rechler, chief executive of the development firm\u00a0RXR, has said of the plan.<\/p>\n His firm has invested more than $1 billion in New Rochelle. Overall planned private investment: $2.5 billion.<\/p>\n Can New Rochelle provide a model for LA and Gotham?\u00a0<\/p>\n Both have a long way to go.<\/p>\n In New York, a new city report focused on speeding up the permitting process revealed that \u201cbefore a project can begin construction, it must receive approvals from up to 15 City agencies.\u201d \u00a0<\/p>\n No wonder the permitting process alone \u201ctakes 16 months on average.\u201d<\/p>\n Add on the time of construction itself, and \u201cit takes an average of over four years from the initial filing of a new building permit to officially complete construction and all inspections.\u201d<\/p>\n In Los Angeles,\u00a0 the\u00a0Journal\u00a0of Urban Economics recently found, it takes an average of four years to build a new multi-family building \u2014 with a year and a half of that devoted just to obtaining permits.<\/p>\n Researchers concluded that bringing that process down to one year \u2014 far longer than New Rochelle\u2019s 90 days \u2014 could increase available housing in LA by 23.7%.\u00a0<\/p>\n The authors\u2019 conclusion applies just as much to NYC as to LA: \u201cLengthy bureaucratic timelines\u201d lead to \u201ccostly delay and disincentivizing of new investment.\u201d<\/p>\n If Mamdani is willing to learn from Democratic New Rochelle, he should note that its fast-track approval rule applies to all proposed new housing, not just to so-called affordable (that is, income-restricted) units.<\/p>\n New Rochelle recognizes that more supply brings competition, and competition helps restrain housing prices overall.<\/p>\n It\u2019s a lesson Mamdani should take to heart: His\u00a0recently announced Streamlining Procedures to Expedite Equitable Development ( or SPEED) plan focuses only on reducing permit hold-ups<\/a> for \u201caffordable homes . . . frequently delayed by red tape.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n In other words, it\u2019s OK for market-rate housing to get stuck in the permitting mud.<\/p>\n That limited mindset will only serve to\u00a0keep New York City mired in its never-ending housing crisis.<\/p>\n He\u2019d do better to heed his New Rochelle counterpart, Mayor Ramos-Herbert.<\/p>\n \u201cYou can say rent control or rent freeze and I understand it,\u201d she\u2019s said. \u201cBut the success of our model has allowed us to invest and explore other opportunities around affordability.\u201d<\/p>\n