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Q&A
Council member Bottcher questions Community Board 4 on Western Rail Yards plan
1:17:05
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166 sec
Council Member Erik D. Bottcher engages in a Q&A session with Paul Devlin from Community Board 4 regarding the Western Rail Yards development plan. They discuss the viability of the 2009 plan and the need for potential modifications.
- Devlin clarifies that the board hasn't officially taken a position on modifying the 2009 plan
- Bottcher emphasizes the importance of detailed discussions with the community board about financing
- Devlin expresses willingness to work with developers to find a solution, while opposing the current application due to lack of information
Erik D. Bottcher
1:17:05
I won't ask I won't ask a ton of questions.
1:17:08
It's a long day.
1:17:10
Paul, community board four, do you after all the analysis you've done and the meetings we've had, do you believe that the 02/2009 plan is viable or do you have you as a board reached the conclusion that it does need to be modified in some way?
1:18:19
Because one of the you know, when I met with the applicants, the first thing I said was, you know, before we even talk about what changes are made, you've got to sit with the community board and the elected officials and really go through the 2,009 financing in great detail and help folks understand whether or not that needs to be changed.
1:18:51
And when we all met they went through in relatively high detail about why the 2,009 financing wasn't going to pencil out.
1:19:05
The question is if it does need to change, what are those changes?
1:19:11
And so you personally believe that some changes might be in order, but the board hasn't officially taken that position.
1:19:50
Thank you.
Paul Devlin
1:17:35
I would say as a board we have not taken a position one way or the other because we have not presented enough data to make that conclusion.
1:17:42
We did have a meeting with the development team about the housing cost changes between 02/2009 and 2025.
1:17:48
We did question some of the forecasts they had made and whether or not those numbers were conclusionary to say that would not work, but we would not provide further information on that.
1:17:58
I would say personally that I recognize that changes between 02/2009 and 02/2025 are realistic.
1:18:04
Yes, inflation and costs of construction have gone up, so I would agree with that strategy, But that doesn't preclude us from sitting down and having a conversation about those solutions.
1:18:15
And that's something that we should have started years ago, not three days ago.
1:19:20
Correct.
1:19:21
The board has not officially taken a position on that, but we as a board have always been proponents of new housing and new development.
1:19:27
We are not a board to deny applications for new construction, new homes, new projects.
1:19:33
So it would work to the benefit of the development team and to the community to work together to find a solution on this site.
1:19:40
We are not saying no outright.
1:19:42
We're saying no to this current application because we don't have enough information to make a better conclusion.
1:19:46
We would be happy to work with the developer to find a solution on this on this site.
James Howard
1:18:19
Sure.