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TESTIMONY

John Woelfling, Principal at Dattner Architects, on support for City of Yes for Housing Opportunity and personal experience with housing crisis

10:21:23

·

3 min

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John Woelfling, a principal at Dattner Architects and community board member, testifies in favor of the City of Yes for Housing Opportunity proposal. He shares his professional experience in affordable housing development and a personal anecdote about witnessing a family living in a tent in Prospect Park to illustrate the urgency of the housing crisis.

  • Emphasizes the need for a comprehensive solution despite the proposal's complexity
  • Argues against exempting certain communities from the proposal's components (Accessory Dwelling Units, parking changes, Universal Affordability Preference)
  • Advocates for a democratic approach where all communities contribute to addressing the housing supply issue
  • Current zoning resolution restricts housing production
  • The scale of the housing problem requires a big, complex solution
  • Personal experience of seeing a family living in a tent in Prospect Park
  • Encourages the commission to not exempt some communities from playing their part
  • Supports all portions of the City of Yes for Housing Opportunity proposal
  • Advocates for a democratic approach where everyone contributes to create a more stable housing supply

[EXPERIMENTAL]

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

  • UAP
  • Parking Mandates
  • ADU

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.

UAP

"I would encourage the commission to not exempt some communities from playing their part, not pull out EDUs, not pull out the parking, not pull out UAP"

The speaker explicitly mentions UAP (Universal Affordability Preference) as one of the elements that should not be removed from the proposal, indicating that it is an important part of the overall plan.

Parking Mandates

"I would encourage the commission to not exempt some communities from playing their part, not pull out EDUs, not pull out the parking, not pull out UAP"

The speaker mentions 'parking' as one of the elements that should not be removed from the proposal, which likely refers to the removal of parking mandates.

ADU

"I would encourage the commission to not exempt some communities from playing their part, not pull out EDUs, not pull out the parking, not pull out UAP"

The speaker mentions 'EDUs', which likely refers to ADUs (Accessory Dwelling Units). This indicates that ADUs are part of the proposal and should not be removed.

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?
John Woelfling
10:21:23
Thank you, commissioners for this opportunity.
10:21:26
I am testifying tonight in favor of the city of yes for housing opportunity.
10:21:32
I'm a principal at Dattner Architects with over a decade of experience working for profits and not for profit, primarily not for profit, developers providing mixed use housing, affordable senior and supportive housing.
10:21:48
And in those years, I have seen up close and personal the way the current zoning resolution restricts housing production.
10:21:58
In addition to being an architect with this experience, I'm also an active member of my local community board.
10:22:03
You have heard from some of my neighbors tonight, today, So I've seen up close the work that my community and others have put into understanding the city of yes proposals.
10:22:16
It's laudable work.
10:22:18
Unfortunately, my community board has come down with a resolution that is overly restrictive on the belief that our community has already done enough.
10:22:27
And guess what?
10:22:28
We're not in that 10 that's provided more than the other 49.
10:22:32
Or somewhere in the middle.
10:22:33
So there is some anecdotal information that I think people are working from and and basing their beliefs on.
10:22:42
But in some ways I get it, the proposal is big.
10:22:45
It's complex.
10:22:46
But the scale of the problem requires a big complex solution.
10:22:53
So I am completely in favor of all of the portions of the AWS for housing opportunity proposal.
10:23:00
But there's a recent experience that I've had that I would like to illustrate or share with you.
10:23:06
I'm fortunate enough to live near Prospect Park.
10:23:09
And a couple Sundays ago, I was walking my dog in the park, and I walked by a tent that was in the park.
10:23:17
And this is not uncommon.
10:23:18
I see this freaker.
10:23:19
But what was different this time was as I walked by, I could tell it was a family and there was a child in this tent, and the child was maybe eight or nine years old.
10:23:29
And I could tell from the the stuff that they had around 10th, this was not like a camping trip.
10:23:35
This they were there because they didn't have housing choices.
10:23:40
Now I don't I don't pergrudge this family.
10:23:42
They they have probably very limited choices in what they could do, and and I don't know what got them into this particular situation.
10:23:49
But it really drove home for me the cost that we all pay and that some families pay in particular I'm going to wrap this up.
10:24:01
I would encourage the commission to not exempt some communities from playing their part, not pull out EDUs, not pull out the parking, not pull out UAP, because that will undermine the credibility and I think the approach of having everybody contribute a little bit.
10:24:18
And what we all get when we all contribute a little bit is this more democratic approach, a more stable housing supply?
10:24:27
Thank you for the opportunity
Dan Garodnick
10:24:28
to speak to me.

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