QUESTION
What could the Department of City Planning have done differently to better engage with the community on this proposal, and will more resources be allocated for community engagement going forward?
1:13:21
·
129 sec
The Department of City Planning conducted unprecedented community outreach on this complex proposal, but acknowledges room for improvement.
- Held 175 meetings with 59 community boards, often going back multiple times
- Organized info sessions, town halls, and FAQ to address misinformation
- Director would have liked to do more but believes strong effort was made
- Department division dedicated to supporting community boards will continue
- No specific commitment to increase community engagement resources
Kevin C. Riley
1:13:21
As I mentioned in my opening statement, council members have heard many concerns about the complexity of this proposal and frustration has been expressed to us that there was not enough assistance by the administration to fully understand and engage with the proposal.
1:13:35
In hindsight, is there anything you would have done differently to help facilitate more effective engagement with community boards and the public?
Dan Garodnick
1:13:44
That's a that's a very hard question and a good one.
1:13:47
You know, we did more engagement than the Department of City Planning has ever done on a proposal.
1:13:54
59 community boards, 175 meetings.
1:13:57
So doing that math.
1:13:59
We were and this was not at every board, but we went back multiple times to most boards.
1:14:05
We tried our very best to present this in different contexts, public information sessions starting way back in last June, July, September.
1:14:17
We had 6 town halls when we saw things that were generating misinformation at community boards.
1:14:24
We saw we saw myths that were not accurate, that were coming out.
1:14:29
We did a special event.
1:14:30
That we advertised and put out for the public, which is still available on our website.
1:14:35
We put out frequently asked questions, to be able to answer questions that were being raised at the community board process.
1:14:43
I, you know, I would always love to say I would would love to do even even more of all of the things.
1:14:50
But in reality, that is I think a a a fair level of engagement on our part.
1:14:56
And certainly is unprecedented level of engagement.
1:15:02
And we really do hope that people see that we were making real efforts here recognizing the complexity of all this and and trying to meet them where they were.
Kevin C. Riley
1:15:12
Do you plan on increasing more resources for community board education and engagement moving forward as such you did for this project?
Dan Garodnick
1:15:19
We have an entire division that is that whose job is to help provide support resources for our community boards, and we will continue to do that.
Kevin C. Riley
1:15:29
Thank you, commissioner.