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TESTIMONY
Testimony by John Woelfling, Architect from Dattner Architects on ULURP pre-certification delays and fast-tracking affordable housing
2:31:22
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170 sec
Architect John Woelfling, who specializes in affordable housing, declares the ULURP process broken, specifically targeting the excessively long pre-certification phase (often 3+ years). He proposes that 100% affordable housing projects meeting neighborhood AMI targets could potentially bypass the map change/rezoning part of ULURP altogether to significantly speed up development.
- Woelfling highlights the contrast between the lengthy, non-statutory pre-certification phase and the fixed post-certification timeline.
- He shares experiences of simple map changes taking over three years pre-certification.
- Proposes exempting qualifying all-affordable projects from rezoning requirements.
- Believes this targets truly affordable housing development efficiently.
John Woelfling
2:31:22
Great.
2:31:22
Thank you.
2:31:23
So my name is John Wolfling.
2:31:24
Thank you all for your service on this important commission.
2:31:28
I'm here to tell you tonight that the Euler process is broken.
Shams DaBaron
2:31:33
Okay, Mike.
2:31:34
Okay.
John Woelfling
2:31:36
And, and I can tell you with this with confidence because I'm an architect.
2:31:41
It's been practicing in the city for thirty years.
2:31:43
I've also served on my community board, my local community board in Brooklyn.
2:31:47
So I've seen this from both sides.
2:31:48
I've seen how the process works from both sides.
2:31:51
Much of what I've worked on as an architect is affordable housing and really truly affordable housing.
2:31:57
Affordable housing that is sponsored by the city, HPD, and many of those projects have gone through the EULAR process, sometimes for disposition of city owned property, sometimes for rezoning, and sometimes both.
2:32:11
So in my experience, this process is broken in two ways.
2:32:14
And the first one, which has been spoken to at length today, is about nonstrategic plans.
2:32:20
So I'm not gonna go into that.
2:32:21
But what I will talk about, which is where I have a great degree of frustration, the Euler process, as many or maybe all of you know, is comprised of two components.
2:32:30
There's the precertification phase, and then there's the post certification phase phase.
2:32:36
The post certification phase takes six to seven months statutory.
2:32:39
That's it's limited to that.
2:32:41
The precertification phase can take three years or more.
2:32:47
That is crazy.
2:32:49
And what we what often takes up that time is urban planning comments.
2:32:55
It's talk about where the curb cut is located.
2:32:57
It's talk about, you know, the environmental assessment.
2:33:02
And I I truly believe that we need to build more affordable housing.
2:33:07
I have two projects that have taken over three years for just a simple map change.
2:33:14
Three years of that precertification process.
2:33:16
So one of my proposals, and I know this is controversial.
2:33:20
It's been spoken about tonight how controversial it might be, would be to if you've got an all affordable housing project that targets neighborhood AMIs and has a significant percentage that is targeting that neighborhood's AMIs and maybe meet some other environmental factors, just change the map.
2:33:40
Change the map and move on.
2:33:41
Focus on the bigger, more complicated things.
2:33:44
These things that that, my fellow architect, Vishan, talked about, it made so much sense.
2:33:50
Limited to what's in the neighborhood, but make that project affordable so that gentrification, displacement, those things are all addressed.
2:34:00
I've heard many times in the community board that these are, like, the primary concerns of my neighbors, and I get it.
2:34:06
I understand it.
2:34:07
They're right.
2:34:08
But we can build more housing.
2:34:10
We can do it smart.
2:34:11
Thank you.