PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Marc Pittsley, Architect on City of Yes Proposal and Parking Requirements
9:18:56
·
123 sec
Marc Pittsley, an architect with 23 years of experience in NYC, testifies in favor of the City of Yes proposal, focusing on the need to eliminate mandatory parking requirements. He argues that these requirements create design constraints, increase construction costs, and often result in underutilized parking spaces.
- Shares personal experience living in a Crown Heights building where mandatory parking has become problematic due to low demand and management issues
- Describes how parking mandates can create long-term issues for building owners and residents
- Advocates for allowing market forces to determine parking needs instead of rigid requirements
Marc Pittsley
9:18:56
begin.
9:18:58
Good evening.
9:18:58
Can you hear me?
Shaun Abreu
9:18:59
Yes.
9:19:00
I can.
Marc Pittsley
9:19:01
Great.
9:19:01
Thank you so much.
9:19:02
My name is Mark Bidsley, and I'm an architect with 23 years experience working here in the city.
9:19:07
Mostly an apartment buildings, both market rate and affordable.
9:19:10
I'm testifying today in favor of the city of the S proposal because we desperately need a return to incentivize construction of warehousing in the city.
9:19:17
Specifically, I want to say a few words regarding mandatory parking requirements.
9:19:21
As a as a designer, I've seen firsthand how these ones is cost of constraints and maneuverability.
9:19:27
For example, structural column locations that are necessary from new railcars are never desirable for the apartments above them requiring expensive transfer beams, and the limits on where parking can be placed without accounting for areas.
9:19:39
In the deep excavations of a new only option of causing hefty cost in waterproofing and ensuring a vulnerable labor overdose.
9:19:46
But I am also speaking to you today as a whole, who has now seen firsthand the consequences of these brutal mandates for building residents.
9:19:54
I live in Crown Heights in a 160 unit building where the developer had to accommodate parking requirement for 66 cars to avoid excavating 2 stories below grade the developer provided a single level of parking in the cellar.
9:20:08
It is in double height car stackers and tight clearance.
9:20:10
It's the assumption was that an attendant would be hired since less than half of the space spaces can be reached without moving the cars, but there was never enough demand to sell spaces to make the cost of hiring an attempt feasible.
9:20:23
Now this amenity has become an albatross with the owners of the building, including myself.
9:20:28
We are unable to hire an attendant.
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We are unable to solve spaces without an attendant, and we are unable to rent spaces to outside neighbors because of the zone.
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So years after completion, the garage sits more than happened to empty, expensive waste space in a city where every inch is precious.
9:20:46
I'm asking the council to approve the city of the us, to prevent this kind of waste.
9:20:50
Parking mandates can plus headaches for homeowners and residents long after the development of the architect of left and seen.
9:20:56
But parking will be determined by market forces.
Shaun Abreu
9:20:58
Thank you so much, Mark.
