The last stated meeting of 2025 is upon us

The full New York City Council will meet for its final stated meeting of the year on Thursday, convening to pass legislation ranging from overhauling street-vending rules to several controversial housing measures.

The Dec. 18 meeting is the last opportunity for council members to get bills across the finish line before 2026. Come Jan. 1, any unpassed measures will need to be reintroduced in the new session where a new mayor and new City Council speaker could cloud their fate. Dozens of bills are likely to go up for a vote Thursday – some of which have drawn sweeping debate over the past few months. Discussions over some of the most controversial measures, like a bill that would allow more homeowners to open their homes for short-term rentals, spilled well into Wednesday evening. (As of early Thursday morning, the City Council had yet to share a full agenda for what it expects to pass.) Despite the more than $1 million Airbnb spent this year lobbying in favor of short-term rentals, that particular piece of legislation is ultimately not expected to move forward this year, the Daily News reported. But don’t expect it to be a slow day at City Hall. Far from it. 

Members will vote on a major street vending overhaul – one that’ll bolster protections and significantly scale up current operations. The centerpiece of the effort, sponsored by Council Member Pierina Sanchez, would lift the caps on street vending licenses and permits, adding thousands of new food vending licenses and general vendor licenses by 2031. Another measure would establish a Division of Street Vendor Assistance within the Department of Small Business Services and another would speed up the disruption of license applications to people on the sizeable waiting list.

Also on the agenda are two bills aimed at giving more security to delivery and rideshare drivers by barring app-based delivery services like Grubhub and rideshare apps from deactivating workers’ accounts without “just cause.”

The same goes for legislation sponsored by Speaker Adrienne Adams that would require the New York City Police Department to grant the Civilian Complaint Review Board direct access to all footage recorded by officer body cameras. Another public safety related-measure on the agenda would require the NYPD to develop a written policy about its radio communication ensuring journalists have real-time access to encrypted radio channels.

But the measures expected to go up for a vote Thursday that have drawn the most controversy over the last few months are tied to housing. A scaled back version of the Community Opportunity to Purchase Act – or COPA – is likely to pass Thursday, which would give community land trusts and nonprofits and some private developers first dibs on buying some buildings when they go up for sale. While the bill has the backing of many tenant advocates and Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani, it’s been ardently opposed by landlords and real estate industry groups who’ve argued it would harm the market.

Another measure expected to pass would require newly built rental apartments to include more two-and three-bedroom units – a bid to make it easier for families to stay in the city. That too was scaled down somewhat to exclude buildings with fewer than 20 units, where more than 30% are supportive housing or where at least half are reserved for seniors, Crain’s New York Business recently reported.