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| New York City Charter | |
|---|---|
| New York State Legislature | |
| |
| Territorial extent | New York City |
| Enacted by | New York State Legislature |
| Enacted | January 1, 1898 |
| Commenced | January 1, 1898 |
| Amended by | |
| |
| Status: Current legislation | |
TheNew York City Charter is themunicipal charter ofNew York City. As part of the1898 consolidation of New York City, theNew York State Legislature enacted a charter for the consolidated city (Laws of 1897, chapter 378, effective January 1, 1898).[1] The Charter was overhauled in 1989, after theNew York City Board of Estimate had been declared unconstitutional, to redistribute power from the Board of Estimate to theMayor andCity Council.[2]
As of January 2018, it includes a non-numbered introductory chapter, plus chapters identified by a number (1 through 75) or a number plus a letter suffix.[3]
The charter is periodically revised, generally via a charter commission[4] including revisions that took place in 1898, 1901, 1938, 1963, 1975, and 2020.[5][6][7]
The 1938 revision replaced theNew York City Board of Aldermen with the New York City Council, and it also created theNew York City Planning Commission.[5]
The 1963 revision of the New York City Charter extended theBorough ofManhattan's Community Planning Councils (est. 1951) to the outer boroughs as Community Planning Boards, which are now known asCommunity Boards.[8] This revision also increased the size of the New York City Council from 25 members to 35.[9]
The 1975 revision of the New York City Charter set the number of Community Districts/Boards to 59, established the position of the district manager for the community districts, and created theUniform Land Use Review Procedure (ULURP) which gave the community boards the authority to review land use proposals such as zoning actions, and special permits.[8]
The 2020 revision included 19 ballot proposals, combined into 5 questions, all of which were approved in the general election on November 5, 2019.[10] These revisions included the implementation ofranked choice voting beginning in 2021 for New York City municipal elections, the expansion of the powers and size of theNew York City Civilian Complaint Review Board, an update to ethics rules for former city officials and members of theNew York City Conflicts of Interest Board, changes to the city's annual budget process, and an extension in the time allocated toCommunity Boards andBorough Presidents to review proposed land use changes as part of the ULURP.
In the 2025 version, the section on succession, Section 10, includes sub-section D2 which describes anInability committee with two provisions:
(a) There shall be a committee on mayoral inability consisting of: the corporation counsel, the comptroller, the speaker of the council, a deputy mayor who shall be designated by the mayor, and the borough president with the longest consecutive service as borough president. If two or more borough presidents have served for an equal length of time, one of such borough presidents shall be selected by lot to be a member of such committee. If at any time there is no valid mayoral designation in force, the deputy mayor with the longest consecutive service as a deputy mayor shall be a member of such committee. The authority to act as a member of such committee shall not be delegable.
(b) Such committee by affirmative declaration of no fewer than four of its members shall have the power to make the declarations described in paragraphs four and five of this subdivision. No such declaration shall be effective unless signed by all the members making it.
On February 17, 2025, comptrollerBrad Lander released a public letter to MayorEric Adams threatening to convene a meeting of the Inability Committee if Mayor Adams does not "develop and present a detailed contingency plan outlining how you intend to manage the City of New York."[11]
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