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TESTIMONY

Eric McClure of StreetsPAC on eliminating parking requirements and expanding transit-oriented development in City of Yes for Housing Opportunity proposal

11:37:44

·

136 sec

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Eric McClure, representing StreetsPAC and Chair of Brooklyn Community Board 6, expresses strong support for the City of Yes for Housing Opportunity proposal, particularly focusing on elements that reduce car reliance and improve public transit. He emphasizes the importance of eliminating parking requirements and expanding transit-oriented development.

  • Strongly supports eliminating parking mandates, which have impeded housing creation and added costs to development
  • Clarifies that ending parking mandates does not ban parking, but allows developers to build parking based on demand
  • Advocates for expanding transit-oriented development and town center zoning to increase density around transit hubs
  • Urges the City Planning Commission to adopt the proposal in full, especially the aspects related to parking and transit-oriented development
  • Strong support for eliminating parking requirements
  • Support for expansion of transit-oriented development
  • Endorsement of town center zoning initiative
  • Increasing density around transit to combat climate change and promote housing creation
  • Reducing reliance on cars and making streets safer
  • Improving public transit

[EXPERIMENTAL]

Which elements of City of Yes for Housing Opportunity were discussed in this testimony?

  • Town Center Zoning
  • Parking Mandates
  • Transit-Oriented Development

The following are AI-extracted quotes and reasoning about which elements of the proposal were discussed in this testimony.

This is a quick, close approximation. Occasionally, the connection between a testimony's transcript and specific elements of City Planning's proposal is tenuous.

Read about this AI-generated analysis here.

Town Center Zoning

"We also strongly support the expansion of transit oriented development including growing the footprint of transit zones across the city as well as the town center zoning initiative."

This quote explicitly mentions support for the town center zoning initiative, which is a key element of the City of Yes For Housing Opportunity proposal.

Parking Mandates

"First, we strongly support the initiative to eliminate parking requirements. These onerous mandates have impeded the creation of housing across large expanses of the city for decades adding tremendous cost to new housing development and in many cases compelling developers to build fewer units and zoning allows in order to avoid triggering expensive parking requirements."

This quote directly addresses the proposal to remove parking mandates, discussing how current requirements are impeding housing development and increasing costs.

"Eliminating these mandates will help spur housing growth while also reducing the perverse incentive for car ownership and driving the and and driving that the existing requirements create."

This quote further elaborates on the benefits of removing parking mandates, which aligns with the proposal's goals of increasing housing production and reducing car dependency.

"We'll also note that there are significant misconceptions about what lifting parking mandates will mean in the real world. Ending parking mandates is not banned parking, far from it. Developers will build parking where there's demand for it, but zoning won't force its inclusion where it isn't warranted."

This quote addresses common misconceptions about removing parking mandates, which is an important aspect of the proposal. It clarifies that parking will still be built where needed, but not mandated everywhere.

Transit-Oriented Development

"We also strongly support the expansion of transit oriented development including growing the footprint of transit zones across the city as well as the town center zoning initiative."

This quote directly mentions support for transit-oriented development, which is a key element of the City of Yes For Housing Opportunity proposal.

"Increasing density around transit, whether that be subway and commuter rail stations, select service routes or the future path of the inner borough express and walkable and vikable neighborhoods is a crucial policy for combating climate change as well as burning housing creation and will make it much easier for New Yorkers to avoid the tremendous financial burden of car ownership should they so choose."

This quote elaborates on the benefits of transit-oriented development, including increased density around various forms of transit, which aligns with the proposal's goals.


About this analysis:

This analysis is done by AI that reasons whether or not a quote from the testimony discusses a particular element of the proposal.

All the prompts and data are open and available on Github.

You can search for testimonies that mentioned a specific element in the table on the main meeting page.

When an element is explicitly stated in the testimony (e.g. "Universal Affordability Preference" or "UAP"), the analysis is accurate.

But the connection between a quote from the testimony and an element of the proposal is sometimes implicit.

In these cases, the AI might eagerly label a testimony as discussing a proposal when the connection is tenuous, or it might omit it entirely.

↗ Why are there transcription and diarization errors?
Eric McClure
11:37:44
Thank you, Chair Goranek.
11:37:46
And commissioners, appreciate your stamina.
11:37:50
I had had good morning in my remarks, and then good afternoon, and now good late evening.
11:37:56
You for holding this hearing and and for the tremendous amount of work that city planning staff has put into the city of yes for housing opportunity proposal.
11:38:04
Also, I wanna thank the interpreters and Suki Ng, who replied to my inquiry at 2:30, let me know that there was still a 128 people ahead of me.
11:38:12
So I'm I'm glad I'm finally here.
11:38:14
My name is Eric McClure, and I'm testifying on behalf of Streetspack, a political action committee and advocacy organization, but I wanna note that I'm also the chair of Brooklyn Community Board 6.
11:38:23
Which last month voted effectively unanimously to endorse the housing opportunity package.
11:38:28
Streets PAC broadly supports the city of yes proposal, but I want to speak specifically to the items that are most germane to Streets PAC's interest in reducing reliance on cars, making streets safer and improving public transit.
11:38:40
First, we strongly support the initiative to eliminate parking requirements.
11:38:44
These onerous mandates have impeded the creation of housing across large expanses of the city for decades adding tremendous cost to new housing development and in many cases compelling developers to build fewer units and zoning allows in order to avoid triggering expensive parking requirements.
11:38:58
Eliminating these mandates will help spur housing growth while also reducing the perverse incentive for car ownership and driving the and and driving that the existing requirements create.
11:39:08
We'll also note that there are significant misconceptions about what lifting parking mandates will mean in the real world.
11:39:14
Ending parking mandates is not banned parking, far from it.
11:39:17
Developers will build parking where there's demand for it, but zoning won't force its inclusion where it isn't warranted.
11:39:22
We also strongly support the expansion of transit oriented development including growing the footprint of transit zones across the city as well as the town center zoning initiative.
11:39:31
Increasing density around transit, whether that be subway and commuter rail stations, select service routes or the future path of the inner borough express and walkable and vikable neighborhoods is a crucial policy for combating climate change as well as burning housing creation and will make it much easier for New Yorkers to avoid the tremendous financial burden of car ownership should they so choose.
11:39:50
We urge the city planning commission to adopt a city of yes for housing opportunity in full, but absolutely want to see these aforementioned aspects of the proposal move forward.
11:39:58
Thank you very much.

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