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TESTIMONY

Laura Spalter, Co-Chair of Broadway Community Alliance, on environmental concerns and lack of affordable housing in City of Yes for Housing Opportunity proposal

2:27:05

·

164 sec

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Laura Spalter, representing the Broadway Community Alliance, criticizes the City of Yes for Housing Opportunity proposal for its lack of comprehensive environmental impact analysis and failure to address affordable housing needs. She argues that the plan's projections are too low and will lead to uncontrolled luxury development without providing sufficient affordable housing options.

  • Expresses concern about the absence of a full-scale environmental review, citing potential impacts on land use, air quality, infrastructure, climate change, and neighborhood character
  • Warns that the proposal may exacerbate existing issues such as sewage backups, flooding, and the urban heat island effect
  • Critiques the plan's voluntary 20% Floor Area Ratio (FAR) bonus for affordable units as inadequate to address the housing shortage
  • City Planning failed to conduct a full environmental review of the City of Yes for Housing Opportunity
  • The projected number of housing units is too low to trigger significant adverse impact assessments
  • The proposal will likely lead to luxury and fair market development rather than affordable housing
  • The plan does not adequately address climate change concerns
  • Increased density and construction will worsen sewage and flooding issues
  • The changes will increase impervious surfaces and exacerbate the urban heat island effect

[EXPERIMENTAL]

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

  • Town Center Zoning
  • ADU
  • 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

"ADU's town center transit oriented development will not result in providing affordable housing."

This quote directly mentions 'town center' as part of the City of Yes proposal, indicating that the speaker is discussing this element. The speaker argues that this element will not lead to affordable housing, which is relevant to the proposal's goals.

ADU

"ADU's town center transit oriented development will not result in providing affordable housing."

This quote directly mentions 'ADU's' (Accessory Dwelling Units) as part of the City of Yes proposal, indicating that the speaker is discussing this element. The speaker argues that this element will not lead to affordable housing, which is relevant to the proposal's goals.

Transit-Oriented Development

"ADU's town center transit oriented development will not result in providing affordable housing."

This quote directly mentions 'transit oriented development' as part of the City of Yes proposal, indicating that the speaker is discussing this element. The speaker argues that this element will not lead to affordable housing, which is relevant to 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?
Laura Spalter
2:27:05
Good afternoon.
2:27:05
My name is Laura spulter, I co chair the Broadway Community Alliance in North Riverdale and speak on its behalf.
2:27:13
By failing to do its due diligence, to analyze environmental impacts of City of Yes for Housing Opportunity.
2:27:20
City planning has failed, both the city and its citizens.
2:27:25
These zoning changes significantly affect every aspect of development in the city, yet is absent a full scale environmental review because the DEIS low vols the number of housing units to less than 1 unit per acre over 15 years.
2:27:44
This questionable projection is too low to trigger the threshold more, quote, significant adverse impacts, end quote, in critical categories, including land use, air quality, infrastructure, including sewer and water, climate change and neighborhood character.
2:28:03
The proposals ignore the stated purpose and need to address, quote, to address the housing shortage and high cost of housing.
2:28:13
And quote, once zoning is deregulated, luxury and fair market development will proceed exponentially as of right We're currently prohibited.
2:28:25
ADU's town center transit oriented development will not result in providing affordable housing.
2:28:31
Affordable housing is a mere afterthought in this plan, which offers development developers a 20% bonus in FAR if they voluntarily provide a small number of affordable units in R6 through 8.
2:28:47
This is similar to similar zoning practice.
2:28:51
City of Yes ignores climate change, projections, and outcomes.
2:28:56
The cost of the city will be catastrophic.
2:28:59
New York City is already experiencing more severe rain events due to climate change.
2:29:05
In my neighborhood, we already experienced raw sewage backups due to new construction and our antiquated infrastructure.
2:29:14
Increasing density, construction, and building envelopes, while reducing open space will dramatically increase impervious surfaces, reducing the ability of storm water to infiltrate the ground.
2:29:28
Blooding and erosion will increase exponentially.
2:29:33
Adding more concrete buildings will raise our city's temperature and increase the heat island effect, making life intolerable.
2:29:43
Who wants to live in a city of cement?
2:29:47
Thank you for this opportunity.

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