TESTIMONY
Margaret Forgione, First Deputy Commissioner of the NYC Department of Transportation, on Intro 746 and modifying vacant paved medians to enhance resiliency through vegetation and stormwater management infrastructure
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155 sec
Forgione explains that the NYC Department of Transportation (DOT) supports the intent of a bill to modify vacant paved medians by planting vegetation or adding stormwater management infrastructure.
- The administration aims to enhance resiliency and has increased focus on stormwater management due to more intense and frequent storms
- DOT works closely with other agencies like the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) and Parks Department to make infrastructure more resilient
- DOT has embraced installing porous pavement and other stormwater practices for projects that disturb over an acre or add 5,000 sq ft of impervious surface
- DOT and DEP have completed or plan to complete 92 linear miles of porous pavement managing 450 million gallons of stormwater per year
- DOT also implements planted medians through capital projects on priority corridors for greening
- However, DOT has concerns about a blanket mandate and wants to target areas most needing stormwater infrastructure
Margaret Forgione
0:47:29
Next, intro 746, sponsored by council member, Felise.
0:47:32
This bill would require DOT in collaboration with Parks and DEP to modify vacant pavedmedians by planting vegetation or adding storm water management infrastructure at a minimum of 3 miles of paved medians per borough per year until all medians have been improved.
0:47:51
This administration chairs Shares the council's goal of enhancing resiliency through New York City, and we support the bill's intent.
0:47:58
With an increase in the intensity and frequency of storms, the administration has increased its focus on stormwater management infrastructure.
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DOT works closely with our sister agencies, including DEP And Parks, to make infrastructure more resilient and to coordinate our response to extreme weather events, including adding storm water management infrastructure.
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DP regularly studies and identifies areas that need interventions and DOT and DDC then incorporate stormwater infrastructure into our capital projects.
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Furthermore, since the unified storm water rule came into effect in 2022, DOT has also embraced installing precast porous concrete panels and capital projects.
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Roadway Reconstruction projects that disturb over an acre of the subbase of the roadway or any project that adds 5000 square feet of impervious surface are required to include storm water management practices to reduce impervious space.
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DOT and DP have either completed or planned to complete in the near term approximately 92 linear miles of porous pavement that will result in approximately 450, 000, 000 gallons of storm water managed per year, the vast majority of which has been installed as part of DEP projects.
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Beyond DEP's focus on storm water management, DOT and DVC also implement planted medians through our capital program along Vision 0 Great Street corridors.
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Priority bus corridors, and greenways, among others, for community beautification and greening.
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In total, we have installed approximately 7 8 of planted space along these corridors, which will grow to more than 14 acres in the coming years.
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While we support the bill's intent for furthering resiliency in green space, we have concerns about its blanket mandate.
0:49:45
It is important that we're able to target our efforts to locations most in need of stormwater and for structure.
0:49:51
We also have concerns about the resources such a mandate would require and the ongoing maintenance needs.
0:49:57
We welcome feedback regarding particular locations of concerns in your district and would be happy to work with our sister agencies to respond.
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Margaret Forgione, First Deputy Commissioner of the NYC Department of Transportation on Intro 745 and the proposed annual cycling study and data tracking by DOT
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Margaret Forgione, First Deputy Commissioner, NYC Department of Transportation on Intro 773 and DOT's coordination efforts and procedures for issuing notices of violation for sidewalk defects