All five charter questions pass in unofficial results. Here's what changes for the Council, and when

New York City voters approved all five proposed changes to the City Charter on Tuesday, according to the Board of Elections' unofficial election night results, last updated at 12:42 a.m. Wednesday. City & State reported that all five had been called by late Tuesday night.

Why it matters to residents: the measures change how the city approves outdoor dining and other uses of sidewalks, hires contractors, reviews street safety projects and sells small city-owned lots, issues building permits, and saves for hard times. Two of them take decisions away from the City Council.

The unofficial count

Results as of 12:42 a.m. Wednesday, Nov. 4, from the Board of Elections. Between 96.3% and 98.5% of scanners had reported in each borough. Absentee, military and affidavit ballots are counted later, and nothing is final until the board certifies the results.

• Question 1, public space permits: Yes 63.4% (1,099,934 to 635,474)
• Question 2, city contracting: Yes 61.8% (1,061,799 to 657,038)
• Question 3, street projects, city property and office leases: Yes 65.7% (1,133,761 to 591,982)
• Question 4, building permits: Yes 67.7% (1,155,304 to 552,003)
• Question 5, rainy-day fund: Yes 72.5% (1,243,219 to 471,812)

Roughly 1.7 million votes were cast on each question. That is about 250,000 fewer than the 1,978,045 votes counted in the city for governor, so a share of voters skipped the back of the ballot. Staten Island was the only borough to vote no on all five; we break down the borough results here.

Mayor Zohran Mamdani's Commission on Government Efficiency drafted all five questions. "Tonight, New Yorkers voted for a government that moves as fast as they do," the mayor said, according to amNY. City & State noted that, unlike last year, the Council did not take a position as a body on the questions.

What changes for the Council

The Council does not vote on charter changes, but two of these rewrite its job.

Question 1 ends the Council's veto over sidewalk cafes. Today the Council can call up a Transportation Department cafe approval and reject it. This year it voted on seven applications, approving six and rejecting one in Corona, Queens, 46-0 on Sept. 24. The change takes effect March 1, 2027, and does not apply to applications filed before then, amNY reported. Our Question 1 explainer has the full record.

Question 3 gives the City Planning Commission the last word on some land decisions. The commission, not the Council, will decide certain sales of small city-owned lots. The measure also reduces Council review of some city office leases. The Council's Rules Committee takes up five planning commission nominees on Monday, Nov. 9. Our Question 3 story explains.

Questions 2, 4 and 5 don't change the Council's powers, but they touch issues members have pressed all year: late payments to nonprofit contractors and slow permits, and the size of the city's reserves.

What our records add

The ad campaign drew Council scrutiny. The city spent about $1.6 million on ads promoting the questions, as we reported last week. Four bills on government-paid messaging, including Int. 1075 from Minority Leader David M. Carr and Int. 1080 from Oswald J. Feliz, are still in the Governmental Operations Committee. They have had no vote since they were introduced Sept. 24. Rachael Fauss of Reinvent Albany told City & State that people were "walking right up to the line" of telling voters how to vote. City Hall spokesperson Dora Pekec said the commission is required by state law to provide public education.

Last year's fight is still on members' minds. At a Sept. 10 stated meeting, Council Member Frank Morano recalled that the Council had campaigned against last year's land-use ballot measures. Speaking about the mayor's pick to lead the Board of Standards and Appeals, he said those measures passed, "that's democracy," and he accepted the result, but argued that the board's added authority made its leadership more important.

What's next

The Board of Elections certifies results after counting the remaining ballots. Each change then takes effect on the date written into it. The central permit hub created by Question 4 has a target launch of Dec. 1, 2029, if it is funded, amNY reported. The Council's next stated meeting is Nov. 12. The official ballot text is on the Charter Revision Commission's site.