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TESTIMONY

Regina Myer, President of Downtown Brooklyn Partnership, on City of Yes for Housing Opportunity zoning amendment

8:38:30

·

3 min

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Regina Myer, representing the Downtown Brooklyn Partnership, expresses strong support for the City of Yes for Housing Opportunity zoning amendment. She emphasizes the need for citywide zoning modernization to address the housing affordability crisis, citing Downtown Brooklyn's significant housing production since its 2004 rezoning.

  • Supports revising height limitation rules in specific areas of the Downtown Brooklyn special district, including Livingston Street, Schermerhorn Street, and Flatbush Avenue
  • Strongly endorses removing minimum parking requirements for new residential developments citywide
  • Mentions intent to provide additional written testimony on office-to-residential conversion and other points
  • Strong support for City of Yes for Housing Opportunity zoning amendment
  • Downtown Brooklyn has added nearly 22,600 housing units with 77,100 more in pipeline
  • Support for revising height limitation rules in Downtown Brooklyn special district
  • Agreement with maintaining height limitations on south side of Schermerhorn Street for transition to low-rise Boerum Hill
  • Strong support for removing minimum parking requirements for new residential developments citywide
  • Reminder of successful 2012 reduction of parking requirements in Downtown Brooklyn
  • Support for office to residential conversion (not fully elaborated due to time constraints)

[EXPERIMENTAL]

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

  • Residential Conversions
  • 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.

Residential Conversions

"In terms of office to residential conversion"

This quote directly mentions office to residential conversion, which is a key aspect of the Residential Conversions element of the proposal. Although the speaker was cut off before elaborating, the mention indicates that this element was going to be discussed.

Parking Mandates

"Talking about ending parking mandates, we are strongly in support of removing removing the minimum parking requirements for new residential developments citywide to allow for more housing options and hopefully getting to lower construction costs."

This quote directly addresses the proposal's element of removing parking mandates. The speaker expresses strong support for this aspect of the proposal, highlighting its potential benefits for increasing housing options and reducing construction costs.

"I also wanna note and remind you all that you did an incredible thing in 2012 when you reduced the parking requirement in downtown Brooklyn. By half. That was with community concurrence, and that did result in more efficient development."

This quote further supports the discussion of removing parking mandates by referencing a past successful reduction in parking requirements in downtown Brooklyn. The speaker uses this as evidence to support the current proposal to remove parking mandates citywide.


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?
Regina Myer
8:38:30
Good evening, chair Goranek, a member of the City Planning Commission.
8:38:36
Regina Meyer, president of the Downtown Brooklyn Partnership, and I'd like to express our strong support on behalf of the entire partnership for the City Planning's proposal, City of Yes, for how housing opportunities zoning amendment to modernize the city zoning rules and address the housing affordability crisis.
8:38:56
In the past 10 years, New York City housing production has concentrated in Oh, really?
8:39:02
Only a few neighborhoods, and that includes Downtown Brooklyn.
8:39:06
Since the 2004 rezoning of Downtown Brooklyn, the area has added nearly 22,600 housing units with another 77100 under construction or in the planning pipeline right now.
8:39:20
Approximately 20% of the existing apartments and over 1900 in the pipeline are defined as affordable.
8:39:30
Updating the zoning is an imperative at this time on a city wide basis as we all know that individual neighborhoods alone cannot solve.
8:39:38
The city wide housing crisis.
8:39:39
The overall plan to add capacity through the city is an imperative.
8:39:44
I want to I know you've it's been a very long hearing for you.
8:39:47
I want to focus specifically on those items that affect downtown Brooklyn.
8:39:52
Some of them are are very detailed, but I think important to note.
8:40:00
We want to support the revision of the height limitation rules in the downtown Brooklyn special district, specifically.
8:40:08
Certain areas along Livingston Skimmerhorn Street And Flap Bush Avenue were identified in the proposal before you to have restrictive zoning envelopes and we support eliminating the height limits on Livingston, the north side of Skirma Horn and the 400 foot.
8:40:27
Restriction along Flatbush Avenue Extension to encourage more housing.
8:40:32
I do want to note that we also agree that the height limitation should be maintained on the south side of Skimmerhorn Street, which would allow for the transition to low rise Borm Hill which was in line with the 2004 rezoning, which you all know I was a part of and which was so important to the Borne Hill community, the low rise community to the south.
8:40:57
Talking about ending parking mandates, we are strongly in support of removing removing the minimum parking requirements for new residential developments citywide to allow for more housing options and hopefully getting to lower construction costs.
8:41:17
I think the the testimony you heard from the representative from the Hudson Companies was very compelling, and we totally concur.
8:41:27
I also wanna note and remind you all that you did an incredible thing in 2012 when you reduced the parking requirement in downtown Brooklyn.
8:41:35
By half.
8:41:36
That was with community concurrence, and that did result in more efficient development.
8:41:42
Just two other points.
8:41:45
In terms of office to residential conversion, the average office vacancy rate Oh, I'm so sorry.
8:41:52
I'll I'll report on everything else in writing.
8:41:54
I'm very, very sorry.

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