"Last week, news broke that the New York City Council had taken the extraordinary step of asking the city's bipartisan Board of Elections to hold back the three measures from the November ballot, ostensibly because they might confuse voters. The real issue lies in what the measures have in common: They would all work around the city council, the place where home-building often goes to die."
"Member deference has no basis in law. It is simply a tradition among legislators who pledge to table any development proposal unless it has the backing of the council member whose district the project is in. This custom is not unique to New York; versions exist in Chicago, Los Angeles, and Philadelphia as well, sometimes under the name "aldermanic privilege" or "councilmanic prerogative.""
New York City faces a dire housing shortage and several charter-change ballot measures aim to simplify permitting and expand the development pipeline. Mayor Eric Adams's commission proposed measures to fast-track affordable housing and create expedited review processes in neighborhoods that build few homes. The City Council asked the Board of Elections to remove the three measures from the ballot, citing possible voter confusion, while actually seeking to defend its discretionary practice of member deference. Member deference, a nonlegal tradition allowing a single council member to block projects, exists in other large cities and creates a single point of failure that stalls housing construction.
Read at The Atlantic
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