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TESTIMONY

Margaret Julie Finch, former Manhattan Community Board 2 member, on opposition to several aspects of the City of Yes for Housing Opportunity initiative

7:50:58

·

82 sec

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Margaret Julie Finch, a former Manhattan Community Board 2 member and long-time New York City resident, expresses opposition to multiple aspects of the City of Yes for Housing Opportunity initiative. She voices concerns about increased density in historic districts, shifts in decision-making power, and the potential for expanded nightlife in residential areas.

  • Supports mandated or portable housing and rent stabilization
  • Opposes allowing more density in historic districts and shifting decision-making power from neighborhoods to commissioners
  • Expresses concern about eliminating youth districts, which could allow casinos, nightclubs, and strip clubs to operate in more areas
  • Opposed to many items in the program
  • Supports mandated or portable housing
  • Against allowing more density in historic districts
  • Against shifting decision making from neighborhoods to commissioners
  • Against giving city planning more discretionary powers without going through the current land use process
  • Against eliminating use districts that limit where casinos, nightclubs, and strip clubs can be located
  • Long-time resident of Manhattan (48 years in a rent-stabilized loft)
  • Does not own a car

[EXPERIMENTAL]

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

  • Parking Mandates

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.

Parking Mandates

"I do not own a car."

While this quote doesn't directly mention removing parking mandates, it indirectly relates to the proposal's aim to reduce requirements for parking spaces. The speaker's statement about not owning a car supports the idea that not all residents need parking, which aligns with the proposal's goal of ending mandatory parking requirements for new housing.


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?
Margaret Julie Finch
7:50:58
Hi.
7:50:58
I'm Margaret.
7:51:00
And I am can you hear me?
Dan Garodnick
7:51:03
You can.
Margaret Julie Finch
7:51:05
Okay.
7:51:06
And I am I'm opposed to a lot of the items on this on this program.
7:51:18
I am for mandated or for portable housing.
7:51:22
And I'm I was born in New York City, and I live in Manhattan loft for 48 years.
7:51:30
It's stabilized, rent stabilized, and I do not own a car.
7:51:36
And in addition, I'm against allowing more density in historic districts, and I'm against shifting decision making from neighborhoods to commissioners and against giving city planning more discretionary powers to approve things without going through the current land use process.
7:52:00
And, also, I am against eliminating the youth districts so that casinos, nightclubs, strip clubs, etcetera, can be nearly anywhere.
7:52:11
I've been fighting them on West 26th Street for years, and I used to be a member of community board 2 years ago.
7:52:19
Thank you so much.

Follow-up discussion/remarks

REMARKS

Chair Garodnick clarifies proposed changes to zoning review processes

7:52:29

·

154 sec

Chair Dan Garodnick addresses concerns about shifting decision-making power from neighborhoods to commissioners by clarifying the specific instances where the City Planning Commission proposes to reduce existing special permits to lesser levels of review. He emphasizes that these changes are limited in scope and aim to make certain zoning tools more usable.

  • The three categories proposed for reduced review are: Landmark TDRs, floor area for supportive housing in R6 and R72 districts, and review of railroad rights of way
  • Garodnick notes that the current special permit process can take about 2 years and cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, which has limited the use of certain zoning tools
  • He assures that the basic framework of as-of-right development and rezoning for larger projects will remain unchanged
  • Opposed to many items in the program
  • Supports mandated or portable housing
  • Against allowing more density in historic districts
  • Against shifting decision making from neighborhoods to commissioners
  • Against giving city planning more discretionary powers without going through the current land use process
  • Against eliminating use districts that limit where casinos, nightclubs, and strip clubs can be located
  • Long-time resident of Manhattan (48 years in a rent-stabilized loft)
  • Does not own a car

[EXPERIMENTAL]

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

  • Parking Mandates

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.

Parking Mandates

"I do not own a car."

While this quote doesn't directly mention removing parking mandates, it indirectly relates to the proposal's aim to reduce requirements for parking spaces. The speaker's statement about not owning a car supports the idea that not all residents need parking, which aligns with the proposal's goal of ending mandatory parking requirements for new housing.


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?
Dan Garodnick
7:52:29
Before we go to Mitchell Lebela, I do want to just make one note here on the subject of taking away rights from community board or counsel or moving things from an actual discretionary to an automatic because that has come up a number of times today.
7:52:49
And there are a few very specific instances here that we proposed to reduce existing special permits to lesser levels of review.
7:53:02
And as some people have pointed out, that includes Landmark TDRs allowing some more floor area for supportive housing in specific districts.
7:53:12
R6 and R72 and also review of railroad rights of way.
7:53:17
Those are the 3 categories And I think that the way it's been presented, it suggests that somehow we're changing the rules in a much more significant way to enable development in a way that is above and beyond what today is discretionary.
7:53:35
Those are the 3 categories where we would be reducing the special permit to a lesser level of review.
7:53:42
Now special permits here as everybody knows require a full user, which can take about 2 years of time, 100 of 1000 of dollars.
7:53:50
That means, for instance, that we've only had about a dozen landmark transfers since 1968.
7:53:58
So the area where we're talking about changing the special permit for landmark transfers, we only had about a dozen of them.
7:54:04
Since 1968.
7:54:06
So if we want people to use zoning tools, for instance, to support landmarks or supportive housing, this proposal is intending to right size the procedure to actually make them usable.
7:54:18
The vast majority of development in New York City is as of right today where it aligns with the zoning that is currently in place, larger projects or changes of use go through rezoning.
7:54:28
To allow different types of development.
7:54:30
We see those here all the time, their neighborhood plans, etcetera.
7:54:33
This basic framework would not change.
7:54:36
Understanding, yester would still be as a right development and it would be incrementally more than what is allowed today, but the larger proposals and neighborhood plans still require rezoning, but the three areas that I cited, those are the ones which we are changing or proposing to change from a special permit couple of years, couple of $100,000 to some lesser level of review.
7:54:57
So I just wanted to clarify that because I've heard it a number of times a day and it's just worth worth noting.
7:55:03
Okay.

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