By Zach Zeliff
One small but important tweak Syracuse can make to its zoning ordinance is to get rid of special permits for housing. Our previous post touched on the issues with special use permits in relation to Syracuse’s new class-based residential zoning, but really, housing should never need a special use permit.
Special permits for housing slow housing construction and worsen the housing shortage. Here’s a quote from a Pew research study in how to improve housing affordability through better permitting:
Delays caused by the permitting process are one driver of the high cost of new housing development—before construction even begins. Across the United States, research has found that cities with high degrees of housing regulation take 2½ times longer to approve projects than less regulated cities. Discretionary processes to approve new apartment buildings, such as requiring special permissions, or mandating public, city staff, or expert review or involvement further delay the construction of multifamily housing.
Long approval timelines can reduce housing production and increase costs for buyers and renters.
So special use permits—which require public hearings and votes by both the City Planning Commission and Common Council—make housing more expensive.
What makes matters worse in Syracuse is recent changes to zoning rules that cause special use permits to expire every thirty months. They’re supposed to automatically renew—unless municipal staff have a problem with the housing—but the process is fraught. A residential building could easily lose its special use permit due to a paperwork error at City Hall. This creates uncertainty for developers and financers looking to build housing in areas with special permits, and uncertainty means less lending and therefore less housing.
City Hall should rectify the issue by just getting rid of them special use permits for housing. If a certain type of housing is allowed in a certain zoning district, then it should be allowed by-right without the need for a special vote from the Common Council. In MX-1 districts, for example, amending the zoning code’s table of allowed uses by changing “S” for special to “P” for permitted is a wise move. Allowing these uses by right is a common sense way to streamline the process, making it easier and more affordable to build the city we want to see.
