Q&A
Garodnick responds to concerns about relinquishing council power
4:11:37
·
106 sec
Daniel Garodnick, Chair of the NYC City Planning Commission, responds to Council Member Ariola's concerns about the potential relinquishing of council power over land use decisions. He argues that the proposal would not significantly impact the council's authority.
- Asserts that 99.2% of rezonings and special permits would still require council approval
- Identifies three specific areas where the proposal suggests changing from special permits to other approval processes
- Argues that these changes are not central to the council's role and would not meaningfully reduce its power
Daniel Garodnick
4:11:37
Great.
4:11:37
Thank you very much for the questions.
4:11:42
Let's start with the last one first because that in some ways is the is the easiest because I've looked at the question very closely about whether this proposal would relinquish power of the council.
4:11:58
And the short answer to that question is having reviewed the last 10 years of rezoning and special permits, 99 plus plus percent.
4:12:08
Maybe 99.2% of them still would need to come through the city council and through community boards for approval, even if the city council approves city of yes without a single edit.
4:12:20
There are three areas in which we are proposing to downgrade a special permit to either an authorization, the city planning commission, or chair certification.
4:12:32
Those three areas are on a railroad right of way, special permit, landmark air rights transfer, or accessing maximum FARs in R6 and R7 districts for supportive housing.
4:12:46
And the short answer is those are not central to the council's existence.
4:12:54
We've had very few of these special permits over time, particularly landmarks.
4:12:58
As it relates to Railroad right of way, it's confusing and has and it's cumbersome.
4:13:03
So the short answer to that one is, absolutely would feel completely comfortable because I don't actually feel like it is meaningful taking meaningfully taking any power away from the council unless you consider that point 8 of 1%, which I do not.
4:13:15
As it relates to your comments about relowing development of any kind, anywhere, or hyper development.
