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Q&A
Challenges with community board involvement in outdoor dining applications
1:04:18
·
60 sec
The discussion focuses on the challenges posed by community board involvement in the outdoor dining application process. Panel members express concerns about the complexity and time-consuming nature of community board reviews.
- Community boards often require additional questionnaires and have their own requirements
- The technical nature of discussions at community board meetings can be confusing for both board members and applicants
- There's a suggestion that the process focuses too much on technical details rather than overall community sentiment
- The panelists argue that the current system frustrates all parties involved
Andrew Rigie
1:04:18
And just and just on the on the community board point as well, I've just seen in my experience
Gale A. Brewer
1:04:22
This is a member of a community board talking.
Andrew Rigie
1:04:24
Yes.
1:04:24
He's doing it as we have it at C B 7 on the Upper West Side where people are going back and forth and trying to get into the technical aspects.
1:04:32
And you hear the expertise a lawyer that does this day in, day out can still be confused by it.
1:04:38
You have people that are volunteer members of a community board sitting there talking about all these technical things, and some things are correct, other things could be incorrect, and you're spending so much time going back and forth, not necessarily on the overall aspect of whether the community wants that sidewalk cafe, wants the roadway cafe or not, but on these technical measurement issues which just takes up too much time and in my opinion, does not help the process and kind of frustrates everyone, both community board members, myself and what I've witnessed from colleagues, but also from the restaurant applicants that appear before the board.
Gale A. Brewer
1:05:15
Okay.
1:05:15
I hope we can hear from Mark Diller because he can simplify that for us.