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TESTIMONY
Testimony by Eric Kober, Senior Fellow at the Manhattan Institute, on ULURP reform and member deference
2:10:10
·
3 min
Eric Kober from the Manhattan Institute proposes charter changes to streamline land use reviews and address member deference. He suggests combining early ULURP review steps (community board, borough president, etc.) into one 60-day period and moving minor actions out of ULURP entirely. To counter member deference blocking needed housing, he proposes a charter referendum to create an administrative body empowered to approve certain minor projects, such as small multi-family buildings (up to 6 units), bypassing council approval.
- Recommends consolidating early ULURP reviews (CB, BP, Boro Board) into a single 60-day step.
- Suggests removing minor items like certain dispositions and street grade changes from ULURP.
- Proposes creating an administrative body via charter change to approve certain small residential projects (e.g., up to 6 units) without council vote, bypassing member deference.
Eric Kober
2:10:10
I'm.
2:10:12
And I'm currently a senior fellow at the.
2:10:25
I'm speaking to.
2:10:28
So I wanna address, let's say, veteran issues of of waiting before and going to specifically speak to two issues.
2:10:40
One is reducing the time and cost of going through the language process.
2:10:45
The second is the trusting issue that came up tonight, which is memory deference.
2:10:52
The primary timing cause issue with the planning process with our dental review, which we look which this commission really can't deal with in state legislation, but there are some useful changes that this commission would recommend.
2:11:06
One one that I would recommend is to combine the the prime board, the community board, the borough board, borough president into a single sixty day process.
2:11:19
The current or the 1989 charter assumes that the borough president, the borough board, then board's recommendations in the mail.
2:11:28
That's not really true.
2:11:30
They talk all the time, and, you know, you could really shorten the process.
2:11:37
Other things this technician could do would be to look at some of the items that go through your work, like dispositions pursuant to zoning, and changes to street grade and just take the matter of the process and create administrative mechanism instead.
2:11:54
On the network difference issue, charter change creates an opportunity to accomplish the referendum, well, we could probably never accomplish through any other means.
2:12:08
One possibility is state planning, zoning administrative decision.
2:12:15
Administrator would be charged with review and approval of minor waivers.
2:12:23
Building on the testimony at the last hearing of my former colleague, I recommended the charter change if this were to take place, specify that one such change would be the approval of residential buildings on any large zone for residential use up to six units and up to a high of 35 feet.
2:12:49
This is an inherently affordable form of housing, which requires no public subsidy, And it would be similar to what some state legislatures have been updated.
2:13:01
For example, in Washington state and in Arizona, most recently, but which are not going to get done in in the New York state legislature realistically.
2:13:14
Thank you, and I'll answer any questions.