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Q&A
How comprehensive planning could expedite development by separating infrastructure and creating predictability
1:08:23
·
4 min
Commissioner Anthony Richardson asks Borough President Antonio Reynoso if comprehensive planning would expedite development. Reynoso affirms this, explaining it would separate infrastructure planning (funded proactively by the city) from housing approvals and create predictable 'areas of interest' where compliant projects could move faster, potentially bypassing ULURP.
- Reynoso argues infrastructure (sewers, schools, parks) should be a city responsibility, planned and funded based on the comprehensive plan, not negotiated project-by-project.
- The comprehensive plan would identify areas suitable for development based on transit, amenities, etc.
- Developers building within the plan's parameters in these areas could receive expedited approvals.
- This creates predictability, reducing reliance on opaque negotiations with council members.
Anthony Richardson
1:08:23
Yes.
1:08:24
Thank you, borough president, for your testimony.
1:08:26
Thank you.
1:08:26
I think from what could gather, your position is that the comprehensive planning model gives us better planning.
1:08:36
Just wanna make sure I understand, are you also suggesting that it facilitates or helps us get development faster as well?
Antonio Reynoso
1:08:44
Yes.
1:08:44
That's the goal.
1:08:45
So the idea here is that we separate, infrastructure from housing.
1:08:51
Right now, the only way to get a new park in your community is to allow for development to happen and negotiate with the city through a community benefits agreement for perks that should already be something that happens in the city.
1:09:02
I shouldn't have to be worried about the city of yes and the claim that our source system is not sufficient enough to handle the new development that's gonna happen.
1:09:11
The city should have a rolling, infrastructure budget that handles those things regardless of development.
1:09:17
There's infrastructure should never be something we talk about.
1:09:20
It should be a given.
1:09:21
It is a necessity for the sustainability of the city, and the housing development then comes after.
1:09:26
In a comprehensive plan, what you would do is say, hey.
1:09:28
You're near a transit rich area.
1:09:30
You're within a half a block of a of a train.
1:09:33
You have, amenities.
1:09:35
You have good schools.
1:09:36
You have great parks.
1:09:37
This is an area where development could happen, and it's zoned at a r five.
1:09:41
This is an area of interest.
1:09:42
If you are a developer and you go into an area of interest, then we would allow you to speed through the process because you're abiding by the principles of a comprehensive plan.
1:09:50
Should you want to exceed the comprehensive plan or do more than what the comprehensive plan is asking, then it goes to ULRP, and it goes through a process that's more formal and it slows you down significantly.
1:10:01
If you abide by the principles, and this is a r seven, r eight area more or less, we won't name it exactly by the that's the text, but our seven, our eight is something we that falls within line of the comprehensive plan.
1:10:13
You don't even need to go through a EULA process.
1:10:15
You've abided by the the the comprehensive plan.
1:10:18
Also, everyone knows the comprehensive plan.
1:10:21
The whole city sees it at the exact same time.
1:10:23
There's nothing hidden.
1:10:24
The community knows exactly what to expect.
1:10:27
Hopefully, in a comprehensive plan, we could talk to a community and say, hey.
1:10:29
This is a small neighborhood.
1:10:30
We're not asking for 20 story towers in Mill Basin.
1:10:33
It just doesn't make sense.
1:10:34
But we're gonna go from one story to three, from three story to five, but we want you to tell us where you wanna see a thousand units of growth.
1:10:41
We're gonna ask you where you think your big streets are, but everyone's contributing.
1:10:44
And then a developer sees the whole map, and they know where the opportunity areas are.
1:10:48
They're throughout the entire borough, and they cannot get stopped by you by our unit process if they abide by the principles of the comprehensive plan.
1:10:55
It speeds it'll speed up development in the city significantly.
1:10:59
And you ask any developer right now what the biggest problem is is they don't know what the they have to negotiate with a council member, and they don't know exactly what the council member is gonna be asking for.
1:11:08
If you ask a council member what the biggest issue is, is that we're in the dark on exactly what development looks what what profit margins these developers have.
1:11:15
There's no pro formas we're getting.
1:11:17
The council members are negotiating in the dark.
1:11:19
We're making this up.
1:11:21
We truly are.
1:11:21
We want 60% affordable housing, and they'll say, we can't do that.
1:11:25
It's impossible.
1:11:26
The finances don't don't work.
1:11:27
Then show me the finances.
1:11:29
Show me that you're not gonna get a 8% return on investment.
1:11:32
Show it to me so that I could feel bad for you, and then maybe I don't negotiate for 60%, and I'll come down to 40 or 50.
1:11:38
But we don't see that.
1:11:39
So we're just shooting darts in the dark and hoping that we get to a number that the community is satisfied with, that that allows for the project to happen.
1:11:49
Our comprehensive plan solves almost all of this.
1:11:51
And if we and it, again, removes the infrastructure development from from housing development, and communities are not angry when we do a city of yes, which is a very modest thing that we did.
1:12:02
It is it's it's the the value of the city of yes is that it was a citywide job, that every council member had to vote on it.
1:12:10
That was the value of it, that we got our council to work as a body on a on an important issue.
1:12:15
The actual work, it's very insignificant to the development that's gonna happen in the city of New York.
1:12:20
But there are one family homes complaining about more people coming into their neighborhoods, and they have combined sewer overflow, and they have issues with their sewers.
1:12:27
That's real.
1:12:28
That should have been taken care of twenty years ago.
1:12:30
So that is not a part of the conversation.
1:12:31
It's completely independent of development, and that doesn't happen right now, and a comprehensive plan can solve for all of that.
Anthony Richardson
1:12:38
Thank you.
Richard R. Buery Jr.
1:12:39
Thank you so much Thank you.