Mayor Eric Adams’ newly appointed Charter Revision Commission met Tuesday, the first in a series of meetings to explore potential changes to city government’s rules and procedures for housing and land use decisions.

The mayor’s latest Charter Revision Commission kicked off Tuesday, holding the first in a series of meetings to explore potential changes to city government’s rules and procedures, with a focus on housing and land use decisions.

Eric Adams announced the formation of the 14-member panel last month, shortly after the City Council adopted a revised version of his “City of Yes for Housing Opportunity” plan, which updates zoning rules to make it easier to build new homes across the city.

The new Commission will likewise focus on updating the 400-page charter—which “defines the organization, functions, and essential procedures and policies” of city government—for potential changes to address the current housing shortage. Any amendments proposed by the group would need to be approved by voters via ballot proposals at the next general election in November.

“The mayor had asked that the Commission look in particular at the charter’s approach to housing and planning, and I can’t imagine a more urgent challenge for this body to take up,” said the Commission’s Chair Richard Buery, a former deputy mayor under Bill de Blasio and current CEO of the anti-poverty organization Robin Hood.*

“Our housing crisis severely limits where New Yorkers can live, what schools they can attend, how they can get to work, and whether their families can stay together,” Buery added. “It is not hyperbolic to say that the future of housing is the future of New York City.”

The Commission will hold a series of public hearings across all five boroughs in the coming months to garner ideas and feedback from the public, and well as from experts and advocates.

It’s not the first time charter revisions have honed in on housing: a Revision Commission in 2019 put forth proposals, which voters later approved, to modestly reform the city’s Uniform Land Use Review Procedure, known as ULURP (the public review process for land use changes, like rezonings.) But it declined to take up more significant changes, including the adoption of a comprehensive planning framework.

At Tuesday’s first Commission meeting, several members touched on issues they hope to tackle.

“For me, the issue is trying to change minds,” said Anita Laremont, a partner at the law firm of Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson LLP, and former director of the Department of City Planning. “We have a system that really works in a very parochial way, because we have to ask on the neighborhood level about what people will agree to, and it frequently stymies our ability to solve big problems on a citywide basis.”

Diane Savino, a former state senator and current adviser to Mayor Adams, spoke of wanting to speed up the development pipeline.

“During the time I was in the Senate in Brooklyn, working with the local councilman and the then-Mayor Bloomberg, we rezoned all of Coney Island to lead to massive development. Well, here we are in 2025 and some of those developments have still not started,” Savino said. “It has taken almost 15 years for a rezoning to come to fruition. It just takes too long.”

Kathryn Wylde, president and CEO of the business advocacy group Partnership for New York City, said the Commission has “a particular opportunity to look at all aspects of the charter in terms of how we can reduce the cost and time associated with production of new housing, preservation of existing housing, and and supporting public-private partnerships in a more effective way.”

The charter revision process under the Adams administration has been controversial. The last commission convened by the mayor in 2024 introduced a series of five ballot measures, four of which were passed by voters in November. Critics called the process a rushed power grab by City Hall and an attempt to weaken the powers of the City Council, which had previously proposed its own ballot question seeking to require Council approval of the mayor’s appointees.

The Council this fall then passed legislation to establish its own charter revision commission, to include nine members appointed by Speaker Adrienne Adams and the remaining members each appointed by the mayor, public advocate, comptroller, and five borough presidents. That commission is expected to move ahead in addition to the mayor’s, Speaker Adams said in a statement last month.

In the meantime, the mayor’s Commission has scheduled the first two of its public hearings in February (three more hearings will be scheduled in March and April):

• Tuesday, Feb. 11, 5 to 8 p.m. at FDNY headquarters, Robert O. Lowery Auditorium, 9 Metrotech Center (enter via courtyard off Flatbush Avenue), Brooklyn.
• Monday, Feb. 24, 5 to 8 p.m. at the NYC Department of Design and Construction Headquarters, First Floor Multi-Purpose Room, 30-30 Thomson Ave. (enter on 30^th Place), Queens.

*Editor’s Note: Robin Hood is among City Limits’ funders.

To reach the editor, contact Jeanmarie@citylimits.org

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