PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Paul DiBenedetto, Chair of Queens Community Board 11
0:59:56
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124 sec
Paul DiBenedetto, Chair of Queens Community Board 11, testified against the City of Yes for Housing Opportunity (CHO) proposal, urging the City Council to reject it. He argued that CHO is a top-down, one-size-fits-all approach that doesn't consider the diversity of New York City's neighborhoods and removes important community input processes.
- DiBenedetto emphasized that 12 out of 14 Queens Community Boards voted against CHO, calling for a more collaborative approach to addressing the affordability crisis.
- He criticized CHO as being developer-driven and anti-democratic, potentially weakening accountability and council members' ability to address district-specific needs.
- DiBenedetto suggested revisiting the affordability issue through meaningful partnerships between local communities, council members, and city planning officials, citing successful rezoning efforts during the Bloomberg administration as an example.
Paul DiBenedetto
0:59:56
Thank you.
0:59:57
Dearest team members of the city council.
0:59:58
My name is Paul De Benadero, and I am the chair of Queen's Community Board 11 in Northeast Queens.
1:00:03
I have been a civic activist for the last 20 years serving in various leadership roles on multiple local 501c3 nonprofit boards.
1:00:11
12 of 14 Queen's Community Boards, including my own voted no to CHO in its entirety, and I'm asking you to do the same.
1:00:20
We need to come back and revisit the affordability crisis in a meaningful partnership with all local communities, council members, and city planning officials working together to achieve these goals.
1:00:30
CHO is a huge one size fits all omnibus style proposal that doesn't consider the many diverse types of neighborhoods in housing that organically coexist across our big beautiful city.
1:00:41
As CB 11 chair, I would never accept the motion that would impose what may be good for my neighborhood upon another.
1:00:47
And as council members, you shouldn't do that to your own colleagues in their districts.
1:00:51
CHO is a top down oppressive Robert Moses style approach to zoning, written by developers, 4 developers that will create yet more market rate housing.
1:01:01
It is anti democratic, ignores community input, takes away the all important Mueller process, Employees overly centralized controls that ultimately weaken the ability of voters to hold their city account officials accountable and takes away accounts member's ability to deal with what is best for the very districts they know better than anyone else.
1:01:21
During the Bloomberg Administration, John Young, the Queen's Director of City Planning worked throughout the borough to over a 15 year period with council members in city inks and community boards to craft rezoning that had buy in from all parties involved.
1:01:34
It was a meaningful compromise in partnership that in the end everyone benefited from.
1:01:38
The city council should reject CHO and reengage the community on a local level working together to achieve a more affordable and equitable city for all New Yorkers.
1:01:47
New York City has just 15% single family zoning, which by a great margin is the lowest percentage of single family zoning of any large city in the United States.
1:01:58
Please reject the city of yes.
