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TESTIMONY
Testimony by Frampton Tolbert from the Historic Districts Council on preservation, housing, and public participation
3:37:54
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111 sec
Frampton Tolbert, Executive Director of the Historic Districts Council (HDC), testifies in support of new housing, emphasizing preservation tools like adaptive reuse and contextual development.
While acknowledging potential ULURP process improvements, especially for small developers, HDC strongly opposes any changes that diminish public participation.
Tolbert argues shutting out the public follows dangerous trends and that community input strengthens projects and civic life.
Frampton Tolbert
3:37:54
Good evening, commissioners.
3:37:55
I'm Frampton Tolbert, the executive director of the historic districts council.
3:37:59
HCC is the citywide advocate for New York's historic neighborhoods, and we represent a constituency of more than 500 community partner organizations to help them preserve the places that matter to them.
3:38:09
Part of the Charter Commission's role is to review existing land use processes and proposed changes.
3:38:15
We strongly support new housing and believe that preservation should be seen as a tool to make that happen, especially through adaptive reuse projects and contextual development.
3:38:23
We cannot build ourselves out of this problem.
3:38:25
As Dan Grodnik has said, 90% of buildings that will exist in 2025 already exist, so we need to incentivize their reuse for housing, especially affordable housing.
3:38:36
We do understand that the commission may make changes to the you know, propose changes to the EULAR process.
3:38:42
We oppose any plan that would diminish or eliminate public participation, efforts to shut out the public out of the process that shapes our lives and opportunities follows a dangerous local and national trend of dismantling civic structures and pet perpetuating the idea that only the wealthy and connected can or should make decisions for us.
3:39:02
HCC is a longtime proponent of public processes.
3:39:06
For more than fifty years, we have reviewed all major applications to the Landmark's commission because we believe community input makes our cities stronger.
3:39:14
We have seen time and time again how public testimony has added vital information to the public record and helped shape these projects into better versions of themselves.
3:39:22
We also say I'll just lastly say, we believe that there may need to be an improvement to your process so that small time developers and property owners can create projects and more housing in a process that mostly benefits now large developers who have the time and resources to fund these projects and timelines.
3:39:41
But the solution is not to stifle community participation.
3:39:44
Thank you.