New Yorkers voted on November 4, 2025 to make it easier and faster to build affordable housing in the city, approving four ballot proposals from the Charter Revision Commission while turning down a fifth question that would have moved municipal elections to even-numbered years.

The four winning measures — Proposals 2, 3, 4, and 5 — passed comfortably, each clearing well above 50%. The result was a clear victory for a pro-housing coalition that had argued the city’s land-use process is too slow and too easily blocked.

What passed

Proposal 2 — Fast Track for affordable housing (58.2% yes). Creates a new process at the Board of Standards and Appeals that can grant zoning relief for publicly financed affordable-housing projects, plus a streamlined public-review track for affordable housing in the community districts that have built the least of it.

Proposal 3 — Expedited Land Use Review (56.7% yes). Establishes ELURP, a simplified review for certain land-use changes, including modest increases in allowable housing, land transfers to enable affordable housing, and urgent climate-resiliency projects.

Proposal 4 — Affordable Housing Appeals Board (58.2% yes). Replaces the mayor’s veto at the end of the Uniform Land Use Review Procedure for affordable-housing projects with a new board — the mayor, the City Council speaker, and the relevant borough president — that can reverse a Council land-use decision if two of the three members agree.

Proposal 5 — Digital City Map (73.2% yes). The most popular measure, it consolidates the official City Map into a single, digitized map used in approving housing and infrastructure projects.

What failed

Proposal 6 — Even-year elections. The commission’s election-reform question, which would have moved city elections to even (presidential-year) cycles to boost chronically low turnout, was rejected. The commission had estimated consolidation could save roughly $42 million every two years, and chair Richard R. Buery Jr. championed it as a turnout fix, but voters said no — and a full shift to even-year elections also runs into state-level legal requirements that the city alone cannot resolve.

The Council fight behind the measures

The headline conflict was institutional. The land-use measures, especially Proposals 3 and 4, were widely read as a check on “member deference” — the longstanding practice by which the City Council follows the lead of the local member on land-use decisions in their district, giving individual council members effective veto power over development. By creating expedited tracks and an appeals board that can override Council decisions, the proposals shift power away from individual members and toward citywide housing production.

That made much of the City Council an opponent. The commission, chaired by Buery, framed the changes as necessary to break a process that lets local opposition stall housing the whole city needs; council critics saw an erosion of the body’s land-use authority. Pro-housing groups took a victory lap when the measures passed.

Why it matters

The vote rewrites parts of the rulebook for how New York approves housing, just as Mayor Zohran Mamdani — who took office weeks later — pursues an ambitious housing agenda. The new tools and the Appeals Board change the balance of power among the mayor, the Council, and borough presidents on development decisions, and they will shape which projects move and how fast for years. The rejection of even-year elections, meanwhile, leaves the city’s low-turnout odd-year election calendar intact.

Verification

Frequently Asked Questions

Which 2025 NYC charter ballot proposals passed?
Proposals 2, 3, 4, and 5 passed. Proposal 2 (Fast Track affordable housing) got 58.2%, Proposal 3 (expedited land-use review) 56.7%, Proposal 4 (Affordable Housing Appeals Board) 58.2%, and Proposal 5 (digital City Map) 73.2%. Proposal 6, to move city elections to even years, was rejected.
What does the Affordable Housing Appeals Board do?
Proposal 4 replaces the mayor's veto at the end of the land-use review process for affordable-housing projects with a three-member Appeals Board — the mayor, the City Council speaker, and the relevant borough president — that can reverse a Council land-use decision if two of the three agree.
Who ran the commission and who opposed the measures?
The 2025 Charter Revision Commission was chaired by Richard R. Buery Jr. The land-use measures drew opposition from much of the City Council, which saw them as eroding members' control over development in their districts; pro-housing coalitions backed them.
Why did even-year elections fail?
Proposal 6 would have moved municipal elections to even (presidential) years to boost turnout, but it faced practical and legal hurdles — a full shift requires state action — and voters said no.