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TESTIMONY
Testimony by Howard Slatkin from Citizens Housing and Planning Council on specific land use reform proposals
1:11:01
·
3 min
Howard Slatkin, Executive Director of the Citizens Housing and Planning Council (CHPC), presents specific charter reform proposals for housing and land use.
He emphasizes modifying, not removing, the council's role.
CHPC proposes a procedural check on member deference via City Planning Commission supermajority override, giving the council speaker a CPC appointment, making council review optional, and allowing the Board of Standards and Appeals (BSA) to grant project-specific zoning waivers for affordable housing in low-production areas.
Howard Slatkin
1:11:01
Good evening, chair of bureau and commissioners.
1:11:03
Thank you for the opportunity to speak.
1:11:05
I'm Howard Slatkin, executive director of Citizens Housing and Planning Council.
1:11:09
And I would like to use the opportunity this evening to build on testimony that I presented, to the this commission back in February and highlight some of the specifics of the proposals we published in our report key charter reforms for housing and land use.
1:11:26
I'll also describe one additional proposal not included in that report that I think is responsive to the issues that the commission is considering here.
1:11:36
In highlighting these, elements of this proposal of of these proposals, I want to emphasize, you know, as part of tonight's discussion that I don't think the question is whether the city council should have a role in the process of land use review, but what the effect of and how to incorporate the city council's review within the land use process.
1:12:00
The proposal that we've outlined in this report wouldn't remove the council from EULRP, but would lean into the council's role as a citywide body, that also, like other participants, the process is responsible for integrating local and citywide concerns and not acting in a strictly local capacity.
1:12:21
The a key element of these proposals would be to create a check, a procedural check on member deference that would in in event in the event that it would compromise the broader public interest, by allowing by super majority vote at the city planning commission and override or modification of a council vote on a land use action.
1:12:42
In addition, the proposals include giving the council speaker the thirteenth appointment to the city planning commission, in order to provide opportunities for coordinated and cooperative review rather than the sequential and rival risk review that occurs through the process in in most circumstances today.
1:13:02
And finally, to make council's review of land use actions optional rather than mandatory, which could, in the event that there is a an outcome that could be achieved at the commission with that composition of the commission, would take nearly two months off of the process.
1:13:20
I'll also highlight one additional item proposal, which would be in order to address the issue of the challenges facing affordable housing development in particularly geographies where there has been an insufficient supply of affordable housing.
1:13:39
Providing the board of standards and appeals with the ability to provide project specific zoning relief for affordable housing developments in areas where there's been an insufficient supply of housing.
1:13:49
The BSA would have the authority to waive zoning provisions based on findings of programmatic necessity and neighborhood character.
1:13:57
And the emphasis here is that this is project specific relief for a proposal.
1:14:02
It's not a zoning change.
1:14:04
The underlying zoning would not, change to that process.
1:14:07
I can answer any questions about those proposals.
Richard R. Buery Jr.
1:14:11
Thank you so much.