Q&A
Community engagement in developing the proposal
1:28:44
·
3 min
Chair Garodnick discusses the extensive community engagement process that went into developing the zoning proposal. He emphasizes the administration's efforts to involve community boards and other stakeholders in the process.
- Garodnick mentions that public discussions about the proposal began in summer 2022
- He highlights the engagement with community groups, stakeholders, and council members
- The chair notes that they attended 175 community board meetings across all 59 community boards
Kevin C. Riley
1:28:44
Thank you so much, commissioner.
1:28:46
Before this proposal was certified and sent to the community boards, will communities engage in the development of this proposal?
1:28:53
Specifically, did the administration engage with community groups and community boards to discuss the pros and cons of the potential reforms before certification?
Daniel Garodnick
1:29:05
We did.
1:29:05
Yes.
1:29:05
And in fact, we started the conversation publicly in the summer of 2022 to give a sense as to where we were heading, and noting that the engagement on the substance of this proposal, you know, went even years before.
1:29:20
It wasn't called City of Gas for housing opportunity at the time, but it was really the principles that gave rise to our own city fair housing report.
1:29:29
But, yes, we spent a good year and a half talking to community groups, stakeholders, interested parties, council members as we shaped the proposal, then we continued to do that once we put it out live into the world even before certification.
1:29:46
So, yes, the short answer is yes.
Kevin C. Riley
1:29:50
Well, a lot of community boards feel like they did not have, say so, within this proposal, so I would love to hear which community boards you guys did engage with.
Daniel Garodnick
1:29:59
We engaged all of them.
1:30:01
By the way, Mister Chairman, I think it's important to note that, you know, we we went to 175 community board meetings of the 59 community boards.
1:30:08
If a community board felt that we did not engage with them, I can assure you it was not for a lack of effort on the part of the pharmacy planning.
1:30:16
We really took that role very seriously.
1:30:19
And as you can see from the way that we have try and I hope you see from the way that we have presented the materials here from creating an illustrated guide, to annotating the zoning text, to doing 10 town hall, public town hall meetings, to having that number of community board engagements with the 59 community boards, to sending the text to them early, earlier than is required by the charter.
1:30:40
We know it's a big and complicated proposal.
1:30:42
The charter defines how we're supposed to do it within the Four Corners, but we went so far and above one pager explanations for every component.
1:30:50
Part that was meaningful of this proposal.
1:30:53
We went we went and did if we could think of it, we did it as a way to try to engage community boards.
1:30:59
So I I, you know, I don't really know what to to say about that.
Kevin C. Riley
1:31:04
Thank you, chair.
1:31:05
It seems to me that resolving the housing crisis of our constituents are facing is a real hard challenge and one that requires input from a broad base of residents and experts.
1:31:14
Did the administration form work in groups of residents local electors and local and national experts to brainstorm ideas as well.
Daniel Garodnick
1:31:23
This proposal has been in formation for so long and really being born out of our where we live report.
1:31:30
The short answer is there has been an extraordinary amount of time, energy, community engagement to shape this proposal.
1:31:37
The specific answer to your question is to a working group.
1:31:41
I I will have to to go back and ask what was done prior to our launch.
1:31:46
It's it's very possible, but we did years of engagement to help put this thing together.
