Your guide to NYC's public proceedings.
Q&A
DOT's efforts to assist non-responsive applicants
1:38:18
·
85 sec
Margaret Forgione explains DOT's efforts to assist restaurants with incomplete or incorrect applications, and their attempts to reach out to non-responsive applicants.
- DOT corrects errors in applications and sends them back to restaurants for review
- Some applicants are not responding or may choose to withdraw without informing DOT
- DOT offers various options for assistance, including site visits, Zoom calls, and in-person meetings
- Challenges include restaurants being busy or lacking expertise to complete applications correctly
Julie Menin
1:38:18
What happens to the 20?
1:38:20
So the 20%,
Margaret Forgione
1:38:21
let me tell you about that exactly.
1:38:23
So we have a number that we're in active discussions with or are nonresponsive.
1:38:29
And so what we found, and Michelle can explain this a little bit further, is that as we as we talked about earlier, some of the restaurants and the hospitality lines mentioned, a lot of the restaurants, because we did not require an architect or an engineer to prepare their drawings, we got some quite substandard drawings.
1:38:47
So what we've had to do in those cases is go back and forth with the restaurant, and what we quickly learned is that the restaurants, they're very busy, they're running a business, or they don't have the expertise.
1:38:57
What we have done, rather than tell them your measurements are wrong, your sidewalk distances are totally incorrect, what we have done is we have corrected those errors for them, sent it back to them, asked them to review, and then we're keeping their application moving.
1:39:12
Of the ones that we're waiting to approve now, what we're seeing is some of them are not responding to us, or some of them may choose to withdraw, but they're not telling us they don't want to participate in the program.
1:39:24
We are doing everything we can to get to them.
1:39:26
We've offered to come out to their restaurant.
1:39:29
We've offered a Zoom call to go through the plans.
1:39:32
They can come to us.
1:39:33
We're open to any of those things that the restaurants mentioned earlier, but we can't necessarily force every restaurant to engage with us if they're not Why