Five proposals to amend the New York City Charter will appear on the Nov. 3 general election ballot. They would change outdoor dining permits, city contracting procedures, street safety projects and more. Early voting begins Oct. 24. Proposals 1 and 2 directly affect restaurants and other small businesses.
According to amNY, five proposals to amend the New York City Charter will appear on the Nov. 3 general election ballot alongside state and federal races. Early voting begins Saturday, Oct. 24. The proposals were drafted by the Commission on Government Efficiency (COGE) under Mayor Zohran Mamdani, and voters can approve or reject each one separately. They would change city administrative procedures, including outdoor dining permits, city contracts, street safety projects and setting aside funds for future fiscal crises.
Proposal 1 overhauls the system for permitting the use of public space for facilities such as sidewalk and roadway dining, wheelchair ramps and planters. Currently, applications for sidewalk dining and roadway dining are handled separately and take several months. The amendment would combine the two applications, eliminate the mandatory public hearing and remove the City Council's power to reject individual sidewalk café applications. Community boards, borough presidents and local City Council members would receive at least 15 days' notice and a 15-day period to submit comments before approval. The commission estimates that, combined with the Department of Transportation's (DOT) effort to clear its application backlog, approval times would fall from up to 8 months to about 2 months and applicants could save up to $1,800 in application-related costs. Citizens Union and the Citizens Budget Commission (CBC) support the measure, while Common Cause New York opposes it, citing reduced public participation. If passed, it would take effect March 1, 2027, and would not apply to applications already submitted.
Proposal 2 addresses the paperwork burden on businesses and nonprofits seeking to contract with the city. It would allow the Procurement Policy Board to set different vendor questionnaire requirements depending on contract size, industry and whether the vendor is a small business. It would also require the board to meet at least once every three months and eliminate the mandatory public hearing on the annual client services plan. The commission believes some procurement processes could be shortened by about 30 days. Citizens Union and Common Cause support it, while the Citizens Budget Commission made no recommendation on this proposal in its October analysis. Separately, Proposal 4 would create a unified system for handling construction permits in one place and move waterfront construction permits from the Department of Small Business Services to the Department of Buildings.
Proposal 3 bundles into a single ballot question the streamlining of street safety project reviews, a shorter review process for sales of city-owned sites of 10,000 square feet (about 930 square meters) or less, and the elimination of some City Council oversight of city office leases. For site sales, final decision-making authority would shift from the City Council to the City Planning Commission. Citizens Union and the Citizens Budget Commission support it, though Citizens Union criticized the bundling of unrelated policies, and the Municipal Art Society of New York urged voters to reject it, saying it would make it easier to sell public land. Because these are amendments to the New York City Charter, they will appear only on the ballots of city voters. Small businesses across the city, including in Queens, that are preparing restaurant permit applications or seeking city contracts could see their application procedures change depending on the outcomes of Proposals 1 and 2.