Q&A
Discussion on landmark air rights transfers and community input
5:38:20
·
156 sec
Council Member Lee and Daniel Garodnick engage in a discussion about landmark air rights transfers, focusing on the process, its impact on communities, and the balance between landmark flexibility and community input.
- Garodnick explains that the proposal would allow for broader geographic transfer of air rights from landmark buildings without requiring a full special permit.
- Lee expresses concern about the impact on communities and argues for maintaining the ULURP process for transfers beyond the landmark's property lines.
- Garodnick explains the historical context of the landmark law and the need for flexibility in air rights transfers to avoid legal issues and support landmark maintenance.
- Lee acknowledges the explanation but emphasizes the importance of community input and suggests exploring more creative solutions.
- The discussion concludes with Lee stressing the need to prioritize community input in any changes to zoning or landmark policies.
Linda Lee
5:38:20
And and just the last question I have, which is more of a clarifying question with the EULIP process, because I know that you're talking about landmark transfers.
5:38:28
So are we talking about land that the the landmark's own, or is this talking about going beyond that property?
Daniel Garodnick
5:38:35
What we're talking about, excuse me, what we're talking about is for air rights that
Robert F. Holden
5:38:39
are
Daniel Garodnick
5:38:39
owned by the landmark.
5:38:40
Right.
5:38:41
But today are trapped on the landmark.
5:38:42
Right?
5:38:43
And today have some flexibility for transfer of those air rights.
5:38:47
We would make that transfer a little broader on geography and to do it without a full special permit, which, of course, is very expensive, time consuming, and cumbersome for a landmark building.
5:39:00
So they would be transferring their air rights off their lot onto a receiving site, onto a separate lot, that could add 20% only on that lot.
Linda Lee
5:39:09
A separate okay.
5:39:10
So I I would just urge that if that were the case that that would still include the alert process because if we're talking about property that's beyond the lines of what the landmark actually owns, in my opinion, that does impact the community and the community should have a say in that.
5:39:23
So that's what I would say.
Daniel Garodnick
5:39:24
Well, thank you.
5:39:25
I mean, the only point I would make on that is that when we created the landmark law and we said, you know, this building this building can no longer evolve or change or use its own property the way it might want to.
5:39:41
We lock them in, and they are forever locked.
5:39:44
And so we as part of that landmark's law, allowed for a transfer, not just on your own site, but off the site.
5:39:51
And that was important because it, you know, prevent that from being a taking under under the law.
5:39:59
And also allowed for some flexibility for Landmark buildings to be able to generate revenue for themselves considering that they were locked in in the Four Corners of their building.
5:40:08
So it would always go off the site and always has gone off the site.
5:40:13
I understand your point about wanting more process.
5:40:15
We we the problem is we've had more process, and we've only seen 15 over 50 years, which means that everybody else has been trapped, and we wanna give landmarks a little bit more flexibility in the interest of their desire to make repairs and their ability to not be completely locked in to air rights that they can no longer use.
Linda Lee
5:40:33
I I get that, but I I still can't imagine that we've looked at all the out of the box creative solutions for that.
5:40:40
So I'd be curious to see if we could have a further conversation about that.
5:40:43
But in general, I would say that, you know, as a former community board member and, you know, provider in the community, it's it's I I really think that we need to make sure that the community's input is at the forefront.
5:40:55
So thank you.
