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Q&A
Debate on the role of City Planning Commission and public trust
1:00:00
ยท
4 min
Council Member Keith Powers and Commissioner Leah Goodridge engage in a debate about the role of the City Planning Commission in addressing affordability and the public's perception of the commission's work.
- Discussion of the division of responsibilities between city agencies in addressing housing affordability
- Argument about whether City Planning should focus primarily on zoning and land use or take a more active role in affordability concerns
- Exploration of public distrust in the City Planning Commission and accusations of 'rubber-stamping' developments
- Disagreement over the main concerns of City of Yes opponents and the true nature of public pushback against development
Keith Powers
1:00:00
Thanks.
1:00:00
We're joined by council member Brooks Power as well.
1:00:03
Isn't there a different way to look at it and isn't it that you're at city planning, you're tending to like the zoning and the and the zoning tax and the land use actions.
1:00:11
HPD is doing subsidies and the part around attacking affordability.
1:00:16
And, you know, HTC is over here, and you have, like, a multi agency set around which DHS has to do a part of affordability.
1:00:24
And the kind of core central of city planning is a question of, like, what gets built?
1:00:28
How big should it be, and should we allow for more.
1:00:32
And in that context, if you're talking about 25, 30 percent, whatever the other normal mandates are, doing a little bit more means you also get a little more affordable piece of that component too.
1:00:44
And then HPD, and this is what we fought for in the council, HPD have to deliver more we have to deliver money for HPD so they can get projects done and we have the available resources to make them more subsidy, we go to Albany to make sure we can strengthen our rent regulation laws.
1:01:00
Kind of core to city planning is sort of what gets built and what should be allowed to be built.
1:01:05
In this case, in places like Manhattan, we're talking about a little bit more density to accommodate a little more peep few more people.
1:01:13
You can debate the logistics around whether that drives the prices down, but it certainly would allow a little more affordable housing to be built and certainly a little more just housing to be built in the city.
1:01:21
And that's kind of what the city planning's sort of piece of this equation is.
1:01:25
How do you respond to that?
Leah Goodridge
1:01:29
Okay.
1:01:29
Let let me accept that proposition for the purpose of this hypothetical.
1:01:34
Let's just say that city planning commissioners are there to rubber stamp rubber stamp development and then the fights the fights that happen, the social conversations about affordability that happens elsewhere at the city council.
1:01:48
This is part of the problem that people don't trust the city planning commission and the government.
1:01:55
This is something that comes up very frequently when people testify at the city planning commission.
1:02:00
They flat out say you guys are just here to rubber stamp everything.
1:02:05
You guys don't ever say no.
1:02:07
You guys don't hear us people come and testify.
1:02:12
Half of the time they're talking about affordability, the other time they're talking about traffic and congestion.
1:02:19
And this is what they say.
1:02:20
You guys are just appointed to just rubber stamp stuff for the mayor.
1:02:25
There's no checks and balances.
1:02:27
No one's talking about the fact that we can't afford any of this stuff.
Keith Powers
1:02:31
But most of the opponents of City of Yes were not debating about affordability.
1:02:35
Were debating about parking and ADUs and other issues which I don't ever have those areas.
1:02:40
I think a lot of the main issues that were being discussed, I know Ian and Council and other places were about so did
Leah Goodridge
1:02:46
you I just have to push back on that.
1:02:49
The opponents of City of Yes were were pushing back because of affordability, specifically most people testified and also outside of City of Yes, the specific idea is this, and I'm going to put it in quotes here because this is what's being said that this city is being bought by developers.
1:03:09
That is literally what the pushback is, that this city is being taken over by developers and that the government is allowing it to happen.
1:03:17
That's what people are saying.
1:03:18
And especially in this climate
Keith Powers
1:03:21
But people can say it.
Leah Goodridge
1:03:23
People The
Keith Powers
1:03:24
question is whether it is true and the question is is whether people can say anything they want and I and we get a lot of things said to us often.
1:03:35
I guess the question is what's true and what's not at the end of the day.
Leah Goodridge
1:03:39
Well, if if if commissioners are rubber stamping things and don't raise affordability and should just look at things as is the building tall enough, then it is true.
Keith Powers
1:03:51
Well, think the term rubber stamp versus should we allow and accommodate more where things are being built today, I think it's a different story.
1:04:02
I certainly think in the question you raised around the Botanical Garden and things like that, those raise issues around how the physical design impacts the rest of the neighborhood and things like that.
1:04:12
I don't take this at all to mean that affordability should be part of the conversation.
1:04:16
And certainly, I think there is a criticism often that it kind of moves through your comes to the council before it really gets to the sort of hard conversations around affordability.
1:04:29
And it's sort of in a on a tight timeline to be able to really accommodate that conversation.
1:04:33
So I I I take that to heart, and I I agree with much of what's being said.
1:04:39
I wanted to ask but I do wanna ask a second question.
1:04:45
That that example around the middle income, a hundred and 30,000 studio example, for though for that person who you take away if if if the adjustment here is to take away MIH and to not allow them to be part of the MIH program and and also we're not allowing for new housing to be built in various different places around the city, which was what City of was getting at.