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TESTIMONY

Rev. Peter Cook of New York State Council of Churches on City of Yes for Housing Opportunity and its impact on faith-based organizations

6:46:34

·

3 min

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Rev. Peter Cook, Executive Director of the New York State Council of Churches and Vice President of the Interface Affordable Housing Collaborative, expresses general support for the City of Yes text amendment. He highlights its potential to address zoning barriers and create more affordable housing opportunities, particularly for faith-based organizations.

  • Supports the Universal Affordability Preference (UAP) provision, which requires 20% more housing to be permanently affordable at an average of 60% Area Median Income (AMI)
  • Endorses provisions that make it easier for congregations to build affordable housing and transfer development rights
  • Cautions against overselling the amendment, acknowledging that increasing supply alone is not the only solution to affordability issues
  • Support for the City of Yes text amendment
  • Importance of addressing zoning barriers to build affordable housing
  • Support for universal preference and increased density with 20% permanently affordable housing at 60% AMI
  • Support for provisions making it easier for congregations to build affordable housing
  • Support for landmark provision allowing congregations to transfer development rights
  • Caution against overselling the City of Yes initiative
  • Recognition that increasing supply is not the only solution for affordability

[EXPERIMENTAL]

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

  • UAP
  • Campuses

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

"We support the universal preference and the allowance to increase density with provision that you must build 60 per you must present build 20 percent more housing that is permanently affordable at an average of 60%. AMI."

This quote directly refers to the Universal Affordability Preference (UAP) element of the proposal, mentioning the 20% increase in housing and the 60% AMI affordability requirement.

Campuses

"We're generally supportive of provisions and make it easier for congregations to build affordable housing and we also support the landmark provision that lets congregations transfer development rights to properties which are close by in exchange for funds to fix up aging properties."

This quote refers to the Campuses element of the proposal, specifically mentioning support for provisions that make it easier for congregations (which are often part of campuses) to build affordable housing and transfer development rights.


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?
Rev. Peter Cook
6:46:34
Thank you for this opportunity.
6:46:36
My name is the reverend Peter Cook.
6:46:38
I serve as Executive Direct of the New York State Council of Churches And Vice President of the Interface Affordable Housing Collaborative as faith based organizations.
6:46:50
We work with architects and attorneys to help congregations repurpose their property to build affordable housing while preventing exploitation by developers and helping them work with reputable developers.
6:47:08
I also serve in the mayor's task force on religious properties, which offered its recommendations to the city of yes.
6:47:18
We've been working on city of yes for a while in the last weeks, we held 3 online seminars, which you can see on our website at the council.
6:47:29
And we're learning and listening, but the council in the main supports this text amendment.
6:47:35
We know that all the money in the world will not build a affordable housing unless you deal with zoning barriers.
6:47:44
City of yes deals with many, but not all of those barriers which is why we generally support it.
6:47:53
With this text amendment, we support the universal preference and the allowance to increase density with provision that you must build 60 per you must present build 20 percent more housing that is permanently affordable at an average of 60%.
6:48:15
AMI.
6:48:16
We do not regard this provision as a backdoor for private developers to come in and bait and switch.
6:48:26
We think this is a really solid regulation, which will ensure permanent affordability.
6:48:36
Secondly, we're generally supportive of provisions and make it easier for congregations to build affordable housing and we also support the landmark provision that lets congregations transfer development rights to properties which are close by in exchange for funds to fix up aging properties.
6:49:00
Finally, I make a plea to the city to not oversell city of yes, and be as clear as you can about what the text amendment can and can't do.
6:49:12
Many critiques I've heard today seem quite overblown But some critiques are helpful, for example, while I think increased supply will result in lower housing costs in many cases, increasing supply is not the only vehicle to deal with affordability.
6:49:34
So we support this text memo, and thank you for this opportunity.

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