SEQRA

SEQRA is New York State's environmental review statute: it requires state and local agencies to consider the environmental consequences of their discretionary actions before taking them, through a graduated process of assessments and, for potentially significant impacts, environmental impact statements. Its obligations attach to the government's decision, not to private activity as such.

New York City implements SEQRA through its own CEQR procedure, with city-specific technical methods. The layering matters procedurally — challenges to a city approval often argue the review was inadequate under the state statute — and practically: the state law is why an environmental study travels with every consequential land-use decision anywhere in New York, city or not.