Suffolk environmentalists fight state budget plan to ease development reviews

Could a housing project on a previously disturbed Suffolk site, a new park, or a wastewater upgrade near the Great South Bay move ahead with less environmental scrutiny? That is the question driving a new fight over Gov. Kathy Hochul’s state budget plan, which would exempt some development from the State Environmental Quality Review Act process.

Hochul’s push is part of her broader “Let Them Build” agenda, announced Jan. 13, 2026. Her administration has argued that SEQRA can add years of delay and unnecessary complexity to projects that have already been found to have no significant environmental impact. State materials cite an Empire State Development analysis saying manufacturing, housing and energy projects can take as much as 56 percent longer in New York from concept to groundbreaking than in peer states.

The budget language would create new exemptions for certain low-impact projects, including housing on previously disturbed sites tied to public water and sewer systems and falling below size thresholds. It would also cover some parks and wastewater infrastructure work. At a Feb. 5 roundtable in Riverhead, critics warned the changes could exempt developments of up to 100 housing units from review, a scale that would matter in towns already wrestling with stormwater, traffic and pressure on coastal resources.

Robyn Silvestri of Save the Great South Bay said the proposal could encourage more development near wetlands and further harm waterways, including the Great South Bay. That concern has traction in Suffolk, where coastal flooding, habitat loss and water quality already shape local debate. A faster approval process could help builders and some housing advocates, but environmental groups say it could also weaken the public’s ability to challenge projects that alter drainage, traffic patterns or shoreline ecology.

Riverkeeper said it shared the goal of addressing the housing shortage, but argued that the proposed amendments sacrificed environmental protections and jeopardized public health and safety. The group said 70 local elected officials statewide signed a letter asking Hochul to withdraw the SEQRA changes. On Long Island, both state Sen. Anthony Palumbo and Assemblyman Tommy John Schiavoni opposed the move at the Riverhead event.

The timing has made the dispute sharper. A New York Supreme Court decision on April 8, 2026 annulled the state Department of Environmental Conservation’s 2024 freshwater wetlands regulations for failing to comply with SEQRA, underscoring how legally fragile wetlands oversight has become. In Suffolk, that backdrop collides with a major public investment drive: voters approved the Suffolk County Water Quality Restoration Act in November 2024, which Save The Great South Bay says will generate $4 billion for wastewater infrastructure and $2 billion for open-space conservation. The group also says Suffolk’s septic improvement program can cut nitrogen pollution by up to 70 percent and reimburse up to 75 percent of installation costs. The budget fight now reaches beyond Albany procedure and into the basic question of how much review Suffolk communities lose, and who gains when projects move faster.