PRESENTATION
Environmental impact assessment and infrastructure considerations
1:06:51
·
4 min
Garodnick discusses the environmental review process for the City of Yes for Housing Opportunity proposal and addresses concerns about infrastructure impacts. He explains the methodology used and the findings of the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS).
- The EIS estimates an incremental increase of 58,200 to 108,900 housing units over 15 years
- The review identified no significant impacts in most categories, including land use, socioeconomic conditions, water and sewer systems
- Potential impacts were identified in community facilities and services, open space, and transportation
- Garodnick emphasizes that the EIS focuses on incremental impacts of the proposal, not overall infrastructure needs
- He highlights ongoing city agency investments in infrastructure through various capital planning processes
- The presentation argues that the incremental nature of the proposed changes would not create significant impacts on infrastructure
Daniel Garodnick
1:06:51
Next slide.
1:06:54
Okay.
1:06:54
Environmental review.
1:06:56
Seeker, our city's environmental quality review requires us to do an environmental impact statement here.
1:07:03
For a generic action, we have to estimate amount type, approximate location, and the overall massing, and form for future developments.
1:07:10
So to do that here, we use 3 methods, a prototypical site assessment, to assess individual sites, to exemplify the local effects of the proposal.
1:07:21
Citywide estimates.
1:07:22
We modeled to estimate scale and the location of future development, citywide.
1:07:29
And we created representative neighborhoods to analyze the proposals collective development effects on the neighborhood scale.
1:07:40
Okay.
1:07:41
Next.
1:07:43
The housing estimate resulting from our EIS is that we would get a city wide increment range of 58,200 to 108,900 housing units over 15 years.
1:07:56
Noting again, that's incremental increase above what we otherwise would have gotten.
1:08:01
Next slide.
1:08:07
We issued our completion of a final environmental impact statement on September 13.
1:08:12
We identified no impact in a variety of categories, land use, socioeconomic water sewer, solid waste energy, etcetera.
1:08:22
We did identify potential for impacts in 3 categories, community facilities and services, specifically early childhood programs in schools, open space and transportation.
1:08:35
We could not preclude impacts in some categories because the likelihood depends on specific site characteristics.
1:08:42
But of course, as we'll discuss in a moment, the city has processes to deal with development as it happens, particularly where you're dealing with small increments of development over wide geographies.
1:08:52
Next slide.
1:08:55
So our environmental impact statement importantly is not designed to identify all future infrastructure needs.
1:09:02
There are many of those.
1:09:04
As some of the the speakers noted at the top, what we are required to study here is the incremental impact.
1:09:14
The incremental impact of adding a little more housing across the city through city of yes.
1:09:19
And that is why it found no significant impact in most categories.
1:09:24
We're talking about incremental impact.
1:09:26
Next slide.
1:09:29
As I noted a moment ago, city agencies continually invest in infrastructure through capital planning, processes that respond to needs.
1:09:37
For example, the Parks department has a 10 year capital strategy with $4,600,000,000 for capital construction and reconstruction projects that is based on their evaluation and need of impacts on open spaces.
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DOT has a 10 year capital plan with $31,600,000,000 for street sidewalks, highways, bridges, and parking facilities The school construction authority, of course, has a 5 year capital plan with $19,000,000,000 allocated for schools, for leases of schools, capital upgrades, and more.
1:10:10
I will note that the city over the last 2 years invested over one point $2,000,000,000 in storm water, flooding protection, prevention as part of the $20,100,000,000 capital plan that it has, and, of course, the September of New York City opened 24 brand new schools.
1:10:28
These are things that happen as a matter, of course, based on what our city agencies, our capital agencies are seeing there on the ground, and that is why, you know, incremental impacts here are small, little more housing in every neighborhood does not create significant amounts of impacts.
1:10:47
Next slide.
1:10:51
In 2022, as you all know, the council required a racial equity report in for applicants, for select rezoning and land use actions to describe how their projects affirmatively further, fair housing, and promote equitable access to opportunity.
