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Q&A
The role of planning frameworks like Fair Share in the ULURP process
0:53:40
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142 sec
Commissioner Leila Bozorg asks Howard Slatkin about lessons from Fair Share provisions and balancing comprehensive planning calls with process reform needs. Slatkin suggests plans provide crucial context for ULURP deliberations, making it a debate against policy goals rather than just ad-hoc decisions, even if strict 'consistency' is hard to enforce between government branches.
- Slatkin notes plan consistency models often rely on higher government mandates.
- He views plans (Fair Share, comprehensive) as valuable for setting goals and providing a framework for public debate within ULURP.
- ULURP's purpose is public deliberation informed by policy, not just compliance checking.
Leila Bozorg
0:53:40
One more question if that's Okay.
0:53:42
Howard, your experience doing strategic planning for DCB, I'm curious if you could reflect a little bit on, like, some of the charter provisions that already require fair share of certain public facilities.
0:53:54
What are are there lessons from that that we can bring into housing or limitations?
0:54:00
And then similarly and I think it's related.
0:54:03
Just given your experience doing strategic planning, how do you balance, you know, these these calls for comprehensive planning with with some of the needs to make reforms in the process to to move towards action?
Howard Slatkin
0:54:15
Right.
0:54:16
I think, there are different versions of kind of plan consistency, whether it's a sort of a fair share kind of model or a housing targets model or a comprehensive plan model.
0:54:32
The models that I'm familiar with usually rely on a higher level of government that mandates compliance, and there's someone external to the city government who holds the city responsible for consistency because consistency is in the eye of the beholder often.
0:54:49
Not maybe not with a numerical target.
0:54:51
That might be a little bit easier.
0:54:53
But that can be difficult among coequal branches of government, to sort of spar over what is consistent with a a plan or policy.
0:55:02
That said, there are lots of ways to provide the context for decision making.
0:55:08
And I think the the the essence of EULIRP is transparency and disclosure and with context.
0:55:15
Right?
0:55:16
The the that there are goals.
0:55:18
There are targets.
0:55:19
There are public policies that are trying to be advanced.
0:55:23
That gives the public, that gives all the participants in the process something against which to hold any land use proposal and to ask, does it meet these things?
0:55:32
There it's really hard to arrive at objective, clear, black and white answers as to whether something is consistent.
0:55:39
But the purpose of Euler is not to, you know, sort of check a box and say this is good.
0:55:44
This is not you know, this complies.
0:55:45
This doesn't.
0:55:46
It's a debate.
0:55:46
It's a public it's a public deliberation, and that plan and those those plans provide the backdrop for making those decisions.
0:55:56
I think that's an, an important part of the process.
Richard R. Buery Jr.
0:56:00
Thank you.
0:56:00
Thank you so much.