Updated: April 13, 2020
Kramer Levin’s Land Use Department is continuing to monitor developments with respect to COVID-19 and its impact on land use approvals, site assemblage and development, and the real estate industry in general. We have the following updates:
- Governor Andrew Cuomo announced on March 27 that non-essential construction in the state will be suspended. The suspension is in furtherance of the governor’s Executive Order 202.8, issued on March 20, which required that 100 percent of the non-essential workforce stay home.
- Essential construction may continue. Essential construction includes roads, bridges, transit facilities, utilities, hospitals or health care facilities, affordable housing, and homeless shelters.
- Affordable housing construction where a minimum of 20% of the residential units are or will be deemed affordable and are or will be subject to a regulatory agreement and/or a declaration from a local, state, or federal government agency is considered essential (per guidance updated on April 9).
- All non-essential construction must shut down except emergency construction (e.g., work necessary to protect health and safety of the occupants, or to continue a project if it would be unsafe to allow to remain undone until it is safe to shut the site).
- At every site, whether essential or emergency non-essential construction, social distancing must be maintained, including for purposes of entry, exit, elevators and meals. Sites that cannot maintain social distance and best safety practices are required to close. Enforcement will be provided by the state in coordination with the city/local governments. This will include fines of up to $10,000 per violation.
- Construction work for these purposes does not include a single worker, who is the sole employee/worker on a job site.
Please see further instructions here https://esd.ny.gov/guidance-executive-order-2026 and here https://www1.nyc.gov/site/buildings/about/covid-19-response.page.
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